View towards Parkway Louis de Soissons memorial
The iconic fountain A central focus on Parkway
Welwyn Garden City was founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the 1920s as the second Garden City after Letchworth. Garden Cities aimed to combine the benefits of the city and the countryside and to avoid the disadvantages of both. Welwyn Garden was designated a new town in 1948, when the Welwyn Garden City company handed its assets to the Welwyn Garden City Development Corporation.
Welwyn Garden City is an attractive town, laid out along tree-lined boulevards with a neo-Georgian town centre. The spine of the town is Parkway, almost a mile long, which is home to an iconic fountain.
There is a shopping centre, the Howard Centre, which houses the entrance to the station and the town’s good transport links and proximity to London have made it a popular residential base for commuters working in the capital. There are excellent shopping and leisure facilities and numerous visitor attractions within the area including the Welwyn Roman baths and Mill Green Museum. Welwyn boasts a large John Lewis department store and other retail chains such as Next, H&M and Waterstones’, as well as smaller independent shops
In 2020, Welwyn Garden City will be celebrating 100 years since Sir Ebenezer Howard purchased a piece of England and began to build his second garden city. With the coming Centenary, a variety of events are being planned to celebrate this special occasion.