In 1898, Ebenezer Howard, appalled at the very unpleasant living and working conditions in the late 19th Century towns and cities, wrote a book outlining his ideas for a completely new way of living. The book, 'Tomorrow, A Peaceful Path to Real Reform', was later republished as 'Garden Cities of Tomorrow' in 1902.

Ebenezer Howard believed that the very best of both town and country life should be married together in small Garden Cities, each with its own greenbelt. He promoted well-planned towns with careful land zoning and a quality of life.

A Garden City would have well designed houses with gardens set in tree lined avenues, clean and healthy work places and a pleasant and healthy environment in which to live, work and follow leisure pursuits.

'There are in reality not only, as is so constantly assumed, two alternatives - town life and country life - but a third alternative, in which all 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. Human society and the beauty of nature are meant to be enjoyed together.'

Ebenezer Howard, 1898

Howard's vision became a blueprint for new communities across the globe. In Europe, Garden Cities were built in Russia, outside Moscow in 1923, and in France, outside Paris in 1912 and the 1930s.

Elsewhere Garden Cities were built in Japan near Tokyo in 1918, and in Africa from 1908 to the 1920s. Today it is Government policy in Japan to build on Garden City lines.

In 1903, First Garden City Ltd commenced the building of an experimental town on 3,818 acres of land at Letchworth, to prove that Howard's ideas were practical. The Garden City became a reality. A unique town where the profit from the management and development of the land was to be returned to the benefit of the town. Now, nearly 100 years later, this principle is still in place.