GARDEN CITIES/ FOREST TOWNS

Greenery to be proud of, all across the new town

“Our town was going to be a good place to work in and a grand place to live in, with plenty of open spaces, parks and playing fields where people could enjoy them”.

Charley in the New Town, Public Information Film

The garden cities left their mark. A town in a forest. Utopian brilliance, Ebenezer’s best idea. Millions of trees and shrubs would be planted across the New Towns (more than 22 million in Milton Keynes alone), filling the gaps and glueing the seams. It was a strategy that promised health and well-being and was no token gesture. Instead the landscape plantings were looked upon as basic infrastructure, a big win for the idealists.

The landscape designers were rambunctious operators, taking their chances by routinely planting around the borders of entire earmarked sites, long before the planners caught up. By the time the builders arrived a few trees would be lost to access routes but the majority of the green border remained, as if it had always been there.

Town parks were created, footpaths carved in and wherever they saw a gap the landscapers planted a tree. It’s a bold and beautiful commitment to nature that has stood the test of time. Diverse leisure activities were whole-heartedly embraced, ski slopes and ice rinks, alongside ornamental ponds, climbing frames and dinosaur statues.

There were marketing advantages too. Architects knew that their modernist buildings could be rather brutal at face-value and if there were plants and trees to soften the hard edge a cautious public would be far easier convinced. Nature brings contrast.

In the long term many councils struggled with the cost of maintenance and up-keep, tree surgeons were much in demand, but without the budget to pay for them. Some residents take matters in to their own hands, chopping back the overhang. People have asked if too much was planted, for utopians maybe the answer would still be, not enough.