Broadway

Ebenezer Howard pioneered the idea of creating garden cities; they would benefit the whole community, they would be well planned and integrate the best aspects of town and country. The first garden city was Letchworth, on a site acquired in 1903. It was planned in 1904 by the architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin. This included a broad spinal approach road from the south and north, named Broadway, leading to Town Square, where the principle buildings of the town would be erected. Lombardy poplars were planted about 1914 to show the location of the buildings, which in the course of events were never built. The section from Hitchin Road northwards to the roundabout was the first part of…

Broadway is 1.5 km long, running south-south-west to north-north-east. The southern end is the junction with Hitchin Road (the A505 road); Station Place, the forecourt of the railway station, is at the northern end. Broad grass verges flank the road from Hitchen Road to Broadway Gardens. About 300 m north of Hitchin Road is the roundabout, Sollershott Circus, the convergence of several residential roads. Overlooking the gardens are the Town Hall (built in 1935), the library (1938), the town museum (1914–20) and the former grammar school (1931). Broadway passes the Gardens on both sides; north of the Gardens, Broadway is divided by a central boulevard where a tramway was originally intended,…