Welwyn Garden City

Welwyn Garden City is Letchworth’s bigger, shinier brother. Founded in 1920, the garden city ideal of Ebenezer Howard inspired architect Louis de Soissons, who oversaw the design of the newly created town. A neo-Georgian style holds sway through much of the town, especially in the housing stock of the first 25 years, much of which was designed by De Soissons and C.H. James. Apart from a couple of examples in the Pentley Park area, modernist houses did not emerge in Welwyn GC until after World War II. Good examples of individual post war houses were built in the leafy north west of the town by architects such as the Architects Co-Partnership and John Bickerdike. Interesting terraced housing was also built in the 1960’s and 70’s as part of the Panshanger extension to the east of the town by the Commission for New Towns. Factories were and are Welwyn GC’s most interesting modernist buildings. The Shredded Wheat Factory and the Roche Factory building are both Grade II listed factories on the Broadwater Road. Factories for ICI and Murphy Radios have been demolished in the last 15 years.