I cannot answer your question directly but suggest you contact Letchworth GC Heritage Foundation, landlord and keeper of the main archives.

http://www.lgchf.com/

they may put you in touch with Mervyn Miller, author of Letchworth book and many articles, and the Historical Society.

A fascinating living experiment which still attracts interest from around the world

Mark
if perchance the LGC Heritage Foundation do not prove as useful as I hope, please get back to me and I will see what I can do for your friend. I note that among many articles published by Meryn Miller is "Garden City Influence on the Evolution of Housing Policy" in Local Government Studies 5 (6) November/December 1979, pp 5 - 22.

Mark
it is easy for an present-day Urban Designer to "denounce" the work of GC pioneers a century after their work, but to do so ignores the social/housing context of late Victorian times.

What Ebenezer Howard actually managed to do (unlike those before him who talked a lot about the problem but did not realise their dream) was to persuade wealthy people to invest in a new town, built to allow common folk to rent modest cottages which came with a garden big enough to feed the expected multi-child families in a town where industry was separated from residential but within cycling distance without pubs en route.

We may think that sounds patronising but it was a revolution for "the workers". Howard was clever enough to ensure that while the workers could afford their rent, their employers paid rents and leases to develop the town and finance development. This worked well enough until Maggie let tenants buy their lease, so ending the guaranteed future income for the town.

Today Letchworth Garden City thrives, about to rebuild its commercial area, largely a grotesque creation of the 60-70s, the enterprise is managed and funded by the Heritage Foundation,(an Industrial & Provident Society) and though residents have a million complaints, I have heard none concerning wasted space. Being a green field enterprise the street layout was extensively researched, owing almost nothing to the few roads and hamlets subsumed.

Having experienced the work of modern day designers, from the windswept grid-iron deserts created postwar on land cleared by the Luftwaffe,via the mulitstorey hobbitholes once praised and prized, now being demolished, to the ghastly pastiche "English vernacular" favoured by our king-to-be. True there are some excellent examples too, but I don't see much evidence that our present generation of designers have learned to balance Ebenezer'sThree Magnets: town, Country, Town-country, any better than he achieved?

Neil,
The urban design seminar that you attended sounds most intriguing. How much attention was given to food? It strikes me, and seems to be supported by Niggles comments, that a key component to sustainable urban design is to achieve a balance between transport and food.

Compact urban design is all the rage at the moment, and being a city dweller myself in the past I have been an ardent supporter of compact design. However, more recently I have begun to question the validity of the concept. Whilst this questioning is based upon gut feeling, and some interesting input from a friend, I have yet to come across any data that really states which premise is actually "the best" option (i.e. a study showing CO2 from minimised domestic/dormitary transport vs. home grown food and avoided food miles).

Niggle,
"Myrvyn Miller is "Garden City Influence on the Evolution of Housing Policy" in Local Government Studies 5 (6) November/December 1979, pp 5 - 22." sound very intriguing. Do you have a copy? My friend is based in New Zealand so it's kind of hard for them to get to a library and do the real digging.

Mark

Maybe it was the wrong thread to suggest that people should look at Erskine...or is it that the development is oop North?
But I do agree with you Niggle, our present designers just close their eyes to a quality precedent...nobody ever seems to "build on" previous good practise.