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Welwyn Garden City is a town (not a city) in Hertfordshire, England. Welwyn Garden City is also known as WGC or, somewhat incorrectly, "Welwyn". This can cause confusion as the village of Welwyn actually lies a few kilometers to the northwest of WGC. Welwyn Garden City, as its name suggests, is a garden city, founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the 1920s following his previous experiment in Letchworth Garden City, and designed by Louis de Soissons. Howard had called for the creation of new towns of limited size, planned in advance, and surrounded by a permanent belt of agricultural land, as a role model for lower-density suburban development. Howard believed that such Garden Cities were the perfect blend of city and nature. The BBC TV series Superstars was filmed in Welwyn Garden City throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Famous former and current Welwyn Garden City residents include S*M*A*S*H, The Subways, David James (England goalkeeper), Damien Hirst (artist), Nick Faldo (golfer), Lisa Snowdon (model), and Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones). Welwyn Garden City is well known by avid readers of the side of breakfast cereal boxes in Britain as the town where Shredded Wheat and Shreddies are made, at the former Nabisco factory (now part of Nestlé). The factory is due to close within the next few years, as Nestlé says that the current site is too small, and that production should be moved to Wiltshire. One company that seems to be committed to Welwyn Garden City is Tesco, which has a substantial head office site in the north of the town (the company's main headquarters are in Cheshunt). The former supermarket chain Fine Fare (now part of Somerfield) had its head office in the town at one time. Welwyn Garden City has a strong industrial area bringing much employment to the area with companies such as Xerox, Roche, Danish Bacon, and Threshers Group - Note Roche has recently moved operations out of Welwyn Garden City and the 88,000sq ft site is not vacant. ICI Paints and Textiles used to be in Welwyn Garden City until the early 1990's. Welwyn Garden City has since local government reorganisation been part of the greater Welwyn Hatfield District. While Hatfield has retained its own town council (albeit limited in responsibilities), Welwyn Garden City has not, and its position within the District is anomalous since (Old) Welwyn also has its own parish council. One of the lesser known ideas of the city's architects was that all citizens of the town would shop in the same shop. Thus the Welwyn Store was established as a central landmark on the 'Campus' (centrally-located green semi-circular area in the town). Commercial pressures have ensured much more competition and variety since, and the Welwyn Department Store is now part of the John Lewis PLC group of stores.
Interesting Facts Popular culture References to Welwyn Garden City occur in popular culture, typically in a humorous context on account of its long and peculiar sounding name, or as an example of a typical suburban commuter town. Examples include Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell, as well as a sketch in Alas Smith and Jones. See also | ||||||||
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