Admin When did Stevenage become a New Town?
1946
Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage was designated the United Kingdom’s first New Town under the New Towns Act.
Is Stevenage nice to live in?
Due to the fantastic transport links the town has to London, it makes it one of the ideal commuter towns and brings plenty of new people to the area. More people does mean that more housing is needed and that services become strained, but it also brings more money into the area.
What’s Stevenage famous for?
Stevenage is a town of approximately 80,000 in the county of Hertfordshire, in the south east of England, only around 32 miles north of central London. The town is well known for being the first ever ‘new town’; new towns were a series of towns built near London after World War II.
When did Stevenage Town Centre open to the public?
The pedestrianised town centre was the first purpose-built traffic-free shopping zone in Britain, taking its inspiration from the Lijnbaan in Rotterdam, and was officially opened in 1959 by the Queen. By the clock tower and ornamental pool is Joyride, a mother and child sculpture by Franta Belsky.
What was the population of Stevenage in the 1940s?
Up until the 1940s, Stevenage had been a quiet farming town of 6,000 people. Those people were very much opposed to their town swelling to a population of 60,000. The government was insistent, though.
Why was Stevenage chosen as a new town?
Grey and somewhat uninspiring it may be, but Stevenage’s political architect Lewis Silkin originally envisaged it as a “gay and bright” place. The minister for town and country planning in the post-war Labour government saw new towns as the solution to the UK’s housing crisis.
Who was the chairman of Stevenage Development Corporation?
In 1949 the radical town planner Dr Monica Felton became Chairman of the Stevenage Development Corporation but she was sacked within two years.