Authors

Chester Smolski

Document Type

Article

Themes

New Towns; Urban Redevelopment

Comments

Stevenage as a prototype of British New Town.

Identifier

HF001

Abstract

"In 1946 when Lewis Silkin, Minister of Housing, approached Stevenage, then a quiet village of about 6,000 residents 30 miles north of London in the lovely rolling Hertfordshire countryside, he must have suspected that the villagers were not particularly anxious to hear him speak. The sign in the railway station had been changed to Silkingrad by some of the disgruntled villagers and before he was to leave he found the tires of his car deflated and some sand in the petrol tank. Stevenage was the first "new town" designated under the New Towns Act of 1946 and the Minister was there to tell the villagers what this would mean for them."

HF0001_sup.pdf (60 kB)
Typed draft with notations by author.

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