Who Designed The Garden City Of New Earswick? I am going to provide you with all of the information you could ever need to answer this question and also tell you a bit more about it. The reason that I am going to tell you all of this is because they have just recently opened up the streets of New Earswick as well as one of the most superb greenhouses that I have ever seen in my life. You will be able to walk around the place and get a good concept of what it was really like when it was designed by Ebenezer Howard.
The term Garden City was coined in the 19th century and it describes the creation of planned residential areas. New Earswick was built by Sir Ebenezer Howard who founded the Garden Cities Association in 1883. He suggested a city which provided housing, industry and recreation for its inhabitants.
Table of Contents
The Garden City of New Earswick
The garden city movement evolved in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a reaction to the overcrowding, pollution and poor housing conditions in British towns and cities. Its founder was Ebenezer Howard who was born in London in 1850. In 1898 Howard published his book ‘To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform’ which promoted an idea he called ‘garden cities’ where people could live a healthy lifestyle far from the dirty, unhealthy slums of the inner cities.
Howard’s ideas spread rapidly and in 1903 New Earswick was founded as a model village for workers at Rowntree’s chocolate factory in nearby York. The village was designed by architect Raymond Unwin who had helped plan the garden suburb of Hampstead Garden Suburb in North London. Unwin designed a compact village arranged around a centrally located green, with houses built close together (to save land) and set back from the street (to create private gardens).
The first houses were built near an old quarry and were two storey with roofs made of clay tiles baked on site. They were all different but with similar red brick facades and leaded windows. There were no front doors – instead there were entrances off side passages which
The Garden City movement
The Garden City movement was one of the most significant developments in English urban planning during the 20th century. The idea of a garden city (where houses, industry and agriculture all co-exist in an ideal environment) is credited to Ebenezer Howard, who published his book Garden Cities of To-morrow in 1898.
His first garden city – Letchworth – was developed across three parishes just north of London between 1903 and 1920. Letchworth became a model for the new town movement which characterised post-war Britain.
A second garden city – Welwyn Garden City – soon followed, established with similar principles to Letchworth but on a much larger scale.
The architect Barry Parker (1867-1947) and the planner Raymond Unwin (1863-1940) were instrumental in realising Howard’s vision at Letchworth. They were commissioned by the newly formed Garden City Association to masterplan and design the first garden city. Parker and Unwin subsequently moved their practice to Welwyn Garden City to oversee its development.
They planned New Earswick in two parts: an extension of the original village was created in 1919, while a new housing estate was built on adjacent land purchased by Joseph Rowntree & Sons Ltd between 1922
Designing the city
New Earswick was the second garden city that Ebenezer Howard designed. He had a vision of creating small, self-sustaining cities that were surrounded by green space and farmland.
In the 1890’s he wrote a book called To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform. In it he explored the idea of developing a new kind of town in which people could live and work in harmony with nature.
Ebenezer Howard’s ideas for New Earswick are based on his earlier attempts at model communities, including Letchworth Garden City and Hampstead Garden Suburb. The principles behind both these urban developments have been influential all over the world.
Housing and community facilities
Housing
Each house was designed with an effort to ensure that all rooms were well lit and ventilated. All houses were planned to include a front and back garden, the back garden being available for gardening, washing and drying clothes and keeping chickens. The back gardens were protected by fences and hedges which screened them from view from the street behind.
Each pair of houses had a shared driveway giving access to a garage at the rear of each house, allowing for the storage of bicycles as well as cars. A footpath ran alongside each driveway leading directly into the back garden. The footpaths joined together to form a network of paths throughout the village, linking the streets to one another and also providing a link to recreation areas within the village such as the cricket ground and tennis courts.
As part of their commitment to social reform, Seebohm Rowntree’s intention was that all the houses would be available for rent rather than sale. Consequently they were built without deeds or legal ownership titles, making them difficult or impossible to mortgage or sell on in future. As part of this process houses had no individual names but were instead numbered 1,2,3 etc up to 100.
Domesday Book – First Surveying of England
The Domesday book was commissioned in December 1085 by William the Conqueror, who invaded England in 1066. The survey’s main purpose was to determine what taxes had been paid under Edward the Confessor and which of his tenants held land directly from the king.
The Domesday book was commissioned in December 1085 by William the Conqueror, who invaded England in 1066. The survey’s main purpose was to determine what taxes had been paid under Edward the Confessor and which of his tenants held land directly from the king.
Two original copies were made, one for the king and one for the royal treasury. Some of its records are available online through Domesday Explorer
Last words
In 1902 the Garden City Association was founded to promote Ebenezer Howard’s concept, and in 1903 Welwyn Garden City was founded. In 1912 Letchworth Garden City, the first of the three garden cities, was created. The term “garden city” is used in many countries and in many contexts, so its exact meaning is not always clear.”
Although it was a relatively small number of people who implemented Howard’s ideas, they had a significant impact on British town planning and were widely emulated around the world. The concept of the garden city has been adapted to other uses, like university campuses and industrial estates.