New Green Towns

Often referred to as garden cities, new green towns combine a high-density mixed-use centre around a station with a surrounding cluster of villages and an employment area, all within walking distance of the station. The greenfield land beyond their pedshed is always protected from development.

Vision from 2050

Many ConnectedCities include these brand-new towns. New green towns and new green quarters provided, and still provide, opportunities for years of growth in areas where the demand for housing exceeded the supply of brownfield sites. They allow housebuilders, large and small, to quickly build housing where it’s needed.

Most new green towns are in locations that previously contained only one or two small villages, or were undeveloped. Some have new stations; others surround old village stations.

Apart from outlying areas of any pre-existing village(s), they are wholly within the pedshed of a single station. The pedshed plan, which is also the town plan, embraces established features such as woods, waters, footpaths, roads, etc.

Each new green town is different, but the pedshed principles make them all recognisably descended from Howard’s garden city diagram. They are the same size – Howard’s housing is all within a kilometre of the centre, the same as a pedshed - and are divided into villages similar to Howard's wards. The main differences are:

Howard’s industrial sites were around the edge of his garden city, but in new green towns the employment area is usually alongside the railway.
In Howard’s model most open space is in his circular grand avenue and central park, but in a new green town green corridors of woodland, open space and horticulture are around and between the villages, converging on a central meeting place.
New green towns have radial walkways and paths separate from the general traffic, so that it’s an easy and pleasant walk or ride from the town centre to the furthermost edges of the town.

The station and some of the core is always opened before the new dwellings are occupied, so that residents have services and inter-town transport from the outset and don’t depend on cars. This is a universal stipulation in all new green towns.

New Green Towns tend to have a population in the order of 30,000, of which about 28,000 are in new dwellings.

New Green Towns are a cluster of villages with a common core around a station. Together they create self-contained settlements which benefit from the resources of their host ConnectedCity. They are compact and walkable, and their boundaries fully protected from further expansion.