Park of the week

123. Howard Park and Garden

This park, in Letchworth, is the farthest away from our Mill Hill home that I’ve written about. I would usually only write about those closer to north London, but Jack and I were in Letchworth and drove past this one. I decided to stop and take a look.

It’s a green space in the heart of the town, surrounded by mature trees and formal gardens. It was opened in 1911 as a central part of Letchworth, the world’s first garden city, a new town founded in 1903 based on principles first put forward by Ebenezer Howard in ‘Tomorrow: a peaceful path to real reform’, published in 1898. Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and agriculture, as a way to capture the primary benefits of the countryside and the city while avoiding their disadvantages. The park  is listed Grade II in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens and was awarded its first Green Flag in July 2013.

A statue of the poet Sappho was presented to the park in 1907 to commemorate the historic link between the garden city and women’s suffrage: Ebenezer Howard headed the Letchworth branch of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage, founded in 1912. The original statue was stolen in 1998, the current statue in place in Howard Park is a reproduction, placed there in 2011 when the park was renovated.

The park and gardens are divided by a road. The more formal Howard gardens, with seasonal wildflowers and a bowling green on one side and the more informal Howard Park with paddling pool (opened in the nineteen thirties) with splash fountains, and play areas, on the other. The park is also home to an over sixties’ social centre, which we didn’t visit as one of us is too young.

There are plenty of benches, also a refreshment kiosk and toilets. There’s a pay and display car park next to the park, and room to park as we did, on a nearby street. 

Judith Field

Howard Park and Garden, Norton Way South, Letchworth Garden City, SG6 1NY