URBAN HISTORY

1. SWATI .R. THAKUR
1ST SEM, M. ARCH
GARDEN CITY

2. GARDEN CITY BY EBENEZER
HOWARD
 The garden city movement is a method of urban planning in which
self-contained communities are surrounded by "greenbelts",
containing proportionate areas of residences, industry, and
agriculture. The idea was initiated in 1898 by Ebenezer Howard in
the United Kingdom and aims to capture the primary benefits of a
countryside environment and a city environment while avoiding the
disadvantages presented by both. Howard was knighted in 1927.
During his lifetime Letchworth, Brentham Garde Suburb and Welwyn
Garden City were built in or near London according to Howard's
concept and many other garden cities inspired by his model have
since been built all over the world.
 Garden City Concept was an effective response for a better quality of
life in over crowded and dirty industrial towns which had deteriorated
the environment and posed serious threat to health. Howard
suggested various additions which were related to green spaces and
open spaces. Garden city model featured the greenbelt in its urban
design and as a part of country planning.

3. GARDEN CITY BY EBENEZER
HOWARD
 These 3 magnets can also be regarded as the garden city principles.
Open spaces, central park and green spaces were given a lot of
importance in Howard’s plan.
 Town – The pull of ‘Town Magnet’ are the opportunities for work
and high wages, social opportunities, amusements and well – lit streets.
The pull of ‘Country Magnet’ is in natural beauty, fresh air, healthfulness.
It was closing out of nature, offered isolation of crowds and distance
from work. But it came at a cost of foul air, costly drainage, murky sky
and slums.
 Country – It offered natural beauty, low rents, fresh air, meadow but
had low wages and lack of drainage. Country has dullness, lack of
society, low wages, lack of amusements and general decay.
 Town- Country – it was a combination of both town and countryside
with aim of providing benefits of both and offered beauty of nature,
social opportunity, fields of easy access, low rent, high wages and field
of enterprise. Thus, the solution was found in a combination of the
advantages of Town and Country – the ‘Town – Country Magnet’ – it
was proposed as a town in the Country, and having within it the
amenities of natural beauty, fresh air and healthfulness. Thus
advantages of the Town – Country are seed to be free from the
disadvantages of either.

4. GARDEN CITY BY EBENEZER
HOWARD
How cities were supposed to be
developed as per Garden City
Movement
•Sir Ebenezer Howard’s garden city
movement was one of the first inspirations for
modern day urban planning.
•The garden city is a place that acts as a
community where people from different walks
of life can live and work in harmony.
• The concept originated from the book by Sir
Ebenezer Howard in the early 1900’s. It was
important for Howard to spread his ideas, and
the Garden City Movement was a way of
doing it.
•He wanted people to move out of cities and
into a new type of community that he called
the Garden City.
•A garden city is an ideal type of settlement or
urban design that has been created using a

5. GARDEN CITY BY EBENEZER
HOWARD
 Main Components of Garden City Concept
 Planned Dispersal: The organized outward migration of industries and
people to towns of sufficient size to provide the services, variety of
occupations, and level of culture needed by a balanced cross – section
of modern society.
 Limit of Town – size: The growth of towns to be limited, in order that
their inhabitants may live near work, shops, social centers, and each
other and also near open country.
 Amenities: The internal texture of towns to be open enough to permit
houses with private gardens, adequate space for schools and other
functional purposes, and pleasant parks and parkways.
 Town and Country Relationship: The town area to be defined and a
large area around it reserved permanently for agriculture; thus enabling
the farm people to be assured of a nearby market and cultural center,
and the town people to have the benefit of a country situation.
 Planning Control: Pre – planning of the whole town framework,
including the road – scheme, and functional zoning; the fixing of
maximum densities; the control of building as to quality and design, but
allowing for individual variety; skillful planting and landscape garden
design.
 Neighbourhoods: The town to be divided into wards, each to some
extent a developmental and social entity.

6. GARDEN CITY BY EBENEZER
HOWARD
 Some of the important
features of Garden City are –
 1000 acres of towns designed for
healthy living and industry
 5000 acres if permanent green belt
which surrounds the whole town
 Density of 12 families per acre
 A large central park having public
buildings.
 limited size of approx 32000 people,
planned in advance and land in single
ownership to eliminate overcrowding

7. GARDEN CITY BY EBENEZER
HOWARD
 Garden cities examples as a result of garden city movement
 Two garden cities were built using Howard’s garden city movement
concept are Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City, both in
Hertfordshire, England.
 1. Letchworth Garden City – The first garden city developed in 1903
by Barry Parker & Raymond Unwin after having won the competition to
build the first garden city. It is 34 miles away from London. It has an
area of 5000 acres with 3000 acres of green belt. It had an agricultural
strip at its periphery to check the invasion of urban areas i.e. the
sprawling. It showed Howard’s general principles, including the
communal ownership of the land and the permanent green belt has
been carried through. It was a town of homes and gardens with ample
open spaces and a spirited community life. A great attention was paid to
landscaping and planting.
 Its plan was based on a population of 30000 with a living area of 1250
acres and 2500 acres of rural green belt.
 Communities ranged from 12000 – 18000 people, small enough which
required no vehicular transportation.
 Industries were connected to the central city by rapid transportation.

8. GARDEN CITY BY EBENEZER
HOWARD
 Welwyn – It was the second Garden City founded by Sir Ebenzer
Howard and designed by Louis De Soissions in 1920 and was located
20 miles from Kings Cross. It was designed for a 4000 population in
2400 acres. It was a town visually pleasing and was efficient technically
and was human in scale.
 It started with area of 2400 acres and 4000 population
 Had a parkway, almost a mile long central mall
 Town laid out along tree-lined boulevards with Neo Georgian town
center
 Every road had a wide grass verge
 Garden city concept spread to various parts of the world and influenced
all English, American, Canadian & Australian planning but housing was
most influenced. Other examples include Glenrother, Bedford Park,
Milton Keynes in the United Kingdom, Village Homes, Reston in the
United States, Helleran in Germany, Tapiola in Finland.

9. GARDEN CITY BY EBENEZER
HOWARD
 Conclusion on garden city movement
 The idea of garden city, which has economic and social advantages that urban
aggregation had destroyed, was seen in the first two garden cities only. It was
seen as the “marriage of town and country, in an increasingly coherent urban and
regional pattern”. These new town towns offer a more pleasing environment than
crowded and squalid quarters in old cities. The movement succeeded in
emphasizing the need for urban planning policies that eventually led to the New
Town movement.

10. Mercantile colonial town in India:
 The colonial cities reflect the mercantile culture of the British rulers in
the following way:
 (i) Population : After 16th century new European merchants reached
from different directions in India. Changes in the network of trade
reflected in the history of urban centres. The European commercial
companies had setup base in different places early during the Mughal
Era : the Portuguese in Panaji in 1510, the Dutch in Masulipatnam in
1605, the British in Madras in 1639 and the French in Pondicherry
(present day Puducherry) in 1673. With the expansion of commercial
activity, towns grew around these trading centers. By the end of the
eighteenth century the land-based empires in Asia were replaced by the
powerful sea-based European empires. Forces of international trade,
mercantilism and capitalism now came to define the nature of society.
 The new kinds of public places emerged in the colonial city. They
performed different types of functions for different people and agencies.
 (ii) Ports : By the 18th century, Madras Bombay and Calcutta had
become ports. Traders, merchant agents, labourers, boilers, clerks and
other employees used to provide different services and functions.

11. Mercantile colonial town in India:
 (iii)Factories : The Europeans fortified their
different factories (i.e. mercantile offices). These
forts were used for the protection of goods,
European settlers and other things.
 (iv) Railway Stations : Railway stations were
developed in all the three colonial cities and some
important towns or cities nearby these cities.
Railway stations were used by government
official, Sepoys, traders, merchants and tourists.
With the expansion of network of railways, links
between major cities and rest of the country
develop.
 (b) Although Calcutta, Bombay and Madras
supplied raw materials for industry in England,
and had emerged because of modern economic
forces like capitalism, their economies were not
primarily based on factory production. The
majority of the working population in these cities
belonged to what economists classify as the
tertiary sector. There were only two proper
“industrial cities” : Kanpur, specialising in leather,
KOLKATA
BOMBAY (NOW MUMBAI)