{"id":29878,"date":"2021-05-04T16:14:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T15:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=29878"},"modified":"2021-05-04T16:42:39","modified_gmt":"2021-05-04T15:42:39","slug":"welwyn-garden-city-new-statue-of-founder-ebenezer-howard-to-mark-centenary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=29878","title":{"rendered":"Welwyn Garden City: New statue of founder Ebenezer Howard to mark centenary"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-3z08n3-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/WGC_Foundation_Ebenezer_Howard_Centenary_040521.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-29880\" src=\"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/WGC_Foundation_Ebenezer_Howard_Centenary_040521-247x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"247\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>A new statue of garden city movement founder Ebenezer Howard has finally been unveiled in one of the towns he planned,Welwyn Garden City, to mark its centenary.<\/h3>\n<h6><em>image: Welwyn Garden City Centenary Foundation website<\/em><\/h6>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><span style=\"color: #800080;\">&#8230;commissioned by the Welwyn Garden City Centenary Foundation&#8230;<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n<h2 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><span style=\"color: #800080;\">&#8230;He wanted properly planned towns, combining the advantages of both cities and the countryside&#8230;<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n<p>BBC News writes:<\/p>\n<p>The 2.2m (7.2ft) bronze statue has been installed in Howardsgate in Welwyn Garden City, which Sir Ebenezer founded in 1920.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-3z08n3-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>His great-granddaughter Ursula Howard said the family were &#8220;honoured people will see the man behind the plan&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-3z08n3-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Artist Ben Twiston-Davies said he hoped he had &#8220;done him justice&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-3z08n3-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>The statue was commissioned by the\u00a0<a class=\"ssrcss-hiczm3-InlineLink e1no5rhv0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wgc100.org\/\">Welwyn Garden City Centenary Foundation<\/a>\u00a0as part of the town&#8217;s 2020 centenary celebrations and should have been unveiled last summer, but installation was delayed due to Covid restrictions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-3z08n3-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>The foundation spent six years planning for the centenary with more than 100 events scheduled, but most were either cancelled or postponed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-3z08n3-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Chairman Peter Waine said he was &#8220;delighted to see this iconic sculpture&#8221; in our town centre.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-3z08n3-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>&#8220;Howard had his own difficulties a century ago as his efforts to start the garden city were delayed as the Spanish Flu pandemic ravaged the country,&#8221; &#8230;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-3z08n3-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Sir Ebenezer was responsible for establishing the world&#8217;s first two garden cities in Hertfordshire, Letchworth Garden City in 1903 and Welwyn Garden City in 1920&#8230;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-3z08n3-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>Ursula Howard said she was &#8220;thrilled to see this wonderful representation of my great-grandfather&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-uf6wea-RichTextComponentWrapper e1xue1i83\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-3z08n3-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi2\">\n<p>&#8220;Our family feel honoured that a century on, people will see the man behind the plan,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-56744802\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more&#8230;.<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Welwyn Garden City Centenary Foundation writes:<\/p>\n<p>Ebenezer Howard had huge vision when he created the concept of Garden Cities and the marriage of town and country, \u00a0building Welwyn Garden City in 1920.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"Pa5\"><span class=\"A4\">The crowning glory of our year of celebrations must be this magnificent sculpture of Ebenezer Howard, created by local sculptor Ben Twiston-Davies, finally installed in pride of place on Howardsgate on 14 April 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The statue is full of symbolism. He presses forwards giving a rousing speech before digging the first spadeful of earth of our Garden City. The rose in his lapel reminds us of his patriotism, his socialism, his belief in the importance of beauty and the marriage of town and country.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wgc100.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more&#8230;.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new statue of garden city movement founder Ebenezer Howard has finally been unveiled in one of the towns he planned,Welwyn Garden City, to mark its centenary. image: Welwyn Garden City Centenary Foundation website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29878"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29894,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29878\/revisions\/29894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}