Welwyn Garden City

Welwyn Garden City is a planned settlement in Hertfordshire built around wide tree-lined avenues that lead through residential districts interspersed with parks and public squares. The layout follows a symmetrical pattern with a central area from which roads extend outward, while industrial areas occupy land on the far side of the railway line.

Sir Ebenezer Howard founded this settlement in 1920 as the second British garden city following his planning principles that aimed to combine housing and employment with ample green space. After World War II the town was designated a New Town and expanded significantly westward under government development programs.

The Welwyn Garden City Music Society organizes regular performances, while the Welwyn Thalians theater group has performed since 1929.

Trains from the station in the town centre reach London Kings Cross in about half an hour, with services running regularly throughout the day. Visitors walking around can follow continuous paths and green corridors between residential areas that make it easy to move through the settlement.

The Gosling Sports Centre offers unusual sporting facilities including an artificial ski slope and an outdoor velodrome for track cycling within a compact area. These installations were partly developed in the 1970s and show how the leisure infrastructure was concentrated within a small footprint.