Garden City Principles

“The advantages of the most energetic and active town life, with all the beauty and delight of the country, may be secured in perfect combination”

Ebenezer Howard: To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform, 1898

The Garden City vision was developed by Ebenezer Howard to combine the very best of town and country living to create healthy homes for working people in vibrant communities. The heart of the garden city ideals are holistically planned new settlements which enhance the natural environment, provide high quality affordable housing and locally accessible jobs.

 The Garden cities were the original manifestation of sustainable developments.  The key principles include:

• Community ownership of land and long term stewardship of assets
• High quality imaginative design including homes with gardens
• Mixed tenure homes which are affordable for ordinary people
• A strong local jobs offer with a variety of employment opportunities within the garden city and easy commuting distance of homes
• Generous green space linked to the wider countryside. Over 60% of Hampstead Garden Suburb is green space, including a mix of public and private networks of well managed, high quality gardens and open spaces.
• Access to strong local cultural, recreational and shopping facilities
• Integrated and accessible transport systems
• Local food sourcing, including allotments.

Over the last century the garden city ideals have proven to be outstandingly durable. Today, we still face the primary challenges confronted by Howard and his followers: meeting our housing shortage, generating jobs and creating beautiful and inclusive places. However, we have also the new challenges of globalised markets and the urgent need to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

New settlements provide the opportunity and the economies of scale to truly fulfill the ambitions of sustainable development  by delivering multiple benefits including social housing, zero carbon design, sustainable transport and local food sourcing. New communities also offer a powerful prospect to put in place new governance structures that put people at the heart of developing new communities and owning community assets.

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