Welwyn Garden City

Welwyn Garden City is a town) in Hertfordshire, England. It was the second "garden city" in England, and one of the first "new towns". It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and exemplifies the physical, social and cultural planning ideals of the periods in which it was built. The town is laid out along tree-lined boulevards with a neo-Georgian town centre. The view along Parkway to the south was once described as one of the world's finest urban vistas.

Understand
Welwyn Garden City is a town, and nit a city. It is also known as WGC or, somewhat incorrectly, Welwyn, although this can cause confusion with the village called Welwyn which lies a to the northwest of WGC.

Welwyn Garden City, as its name suggests, is a "garden city", founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the 1920s following his previous experiments in Hampstead Garden Suburb and Letchworth Garden City. Howard had called for the creation of new towns of limited size, planned in advance, and surrounded by a permanent belt of agricultural land, as a role model for lower-density suburban development. Howard believed that such garden cities were the perfect blend of city and nature. The spine of the town is Parkway, a central mall or scenic parkway, almost a mile long.

Welwyn Garden City is well known by avid readers of the side of breakfast cereal boxes in Britain as the town where Shredded Wheat and Shreddies were made, at the former Nabisco factory (now part of Nestlé).

By train
Trains run roughly every 20 minutes to from London. Taking approximately 30 minutes from London King's Cross, and 50 minutes from London Moorgate station. Trains also run to and from Hatfield, Stevenage, Cambridge and Peterborough.

By bus
The bus station is serviced by local buses only - no National Express services. Local buses run to and from Hatfield, St Albans, Stevenage, Hitchin, Hemel Hempstead, Hertford and Watford.

Get around
WGC is small enough to walk around for any able-bodied person. Taxis are available from the rank at the front of the Howard Centre if required.

Eat
There are several good cafes and restaurants on Howardsgate (the main avenue leading up to the Howard's Centre).
 * You can pick up picnic food from supermarket Waitrose or pizza from Pizza Express.
 * You can pick up picnic food from supermarket Waitrose or pizza from Pizza Express.
 * You can pick up picnic food from supermarket Waitrose or pizza from Pizza Express.

Drink
For something a bit more relaxed, go to The Sun or The Long Arm And Short Arm which are next to each other in Lemsford. A 5-minute taxi ride or 30-minute walk from town.

Or further up the B197 to:

Sleep

 * Best Western Homestead Court Hotel Homestead Lane
 * Best Western Homestead Court Hotel Homestead Lane

Go next

 * Welwyn is a couple of miles to the north of Welwyn Garden City. It was settled by the Romans. Many Roman artifacts have been found, and the remains of a Roman bath house, which lie under the A1 motorway, may be visited. The bath house remains are a scheduled ancient monument, ingeniously preserved in a steel vault. Once part of a fine villa, the layout of the cold, warm and hot rooms and the heating system are remarkably well preserved. The bath house is open on weekends and Bank Holidays between 2PM and 5PM. Also open during school holidays in the afternoon. £1.50
 * Digswell is to the southeast of Welwyn and northeast of Welwyn Garden City. It is an attractive village with several thatched cottages but the main reason most people visit is to look at the Digswell railway viaduct (also known as the Welwyn Viaduct). The viaduct is around long and comprises forty arches of 30 ft (9 m) span, and is  high. It is built of brick and took two years to build. It was opened by Queen Victoria on 6 August 1850, but she was so frightened of its height that she refused to travel across it.
 * The city of St Albans to the South West.