Garden Cities of To-morrow

Sir Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) was a prominent British urban planner. He travelled to America from England at the age of 21, moved to Nebraska, and soon discovered that he was not meant to be a farmer. By 1876 he was back in England, where he found a job with Hansard, which produces the official verbatim record of Parliament, and he spent the rest of his life in this occupation. Howard read widely, including Edward Bellamy's 1888 utopian novel Looking Backward and thought deeply about social issues. One result was his book To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898), which was reprinted in 1902 as Garden Cities of To-morrow. This book offered a vision of towns free of slums and enjoying the benefits of both town (such as opportunity, amusement and high wages) and country (such as beauty, fresh air and low rents). He illustrated the idea with his famous Three Magnets diagram which addressed the question 'Where will the people go? ', the choices being 'Town', 'Country' or 'Town-Country' - the Three Magnets. In 1899 he founded the Garden Cities Association, now known as the Town and Country Planning Association and the oldest environmental charity in England.