Parkway

To Welwyn Garden City for a bit of christmas shopping (I feel way behind).

I like WGC. Every main road is a wide tree lined boulevard with broad grass verges and (now) mature trees - and no litter anywhere. The early houses from the 1920's (WGC was founded in 1920) are lovely arts and crafts designed.

This is Parkway, a mile long broad - well, parkway. It was looking glorious in the sunshine, with the water from this fountain sparkling.

Our main focus was what I still call Welwyn Stores - since 1984 it has been a John Lewis, but when it was built in the 1920's the idea was that everyone would shop in this one place for all their needs, with criticism about a monopoly being created. It is in this photo, on the right hand side directly adjoining Parkway.

The founder of WGC - Ebenezer Howard - is commemorated in street names (Howardgate) and the more recent shopping mall opposite Welwyn Stores (the Howard Centre)