In 2020 Welwyn Garden City is 100 years old!

On this day 100 years ago Welwyn Garden City Ltd was incorporated and Ebenezer Howard and his Board of Directors started planning the creation of the wonderful town many of us call home.

To mark such a special day we have produced a short film celebrating 100 years of Welwyn Garden City.

Looking to the future, the Foundation Board has decided that events planned for this year can continue into 2021 wherever possible and if it is safe for them to take place at that time. The International Symposium is now proposed to take place from 21 – 23 April and our much anticipated Carnival is now being planned to take place on 19 June 2021 as a grand finale to the Centenary celebrations.
We do hope you will enjoy the film and share it widely to wish Welwyn Garden City a very happy 100th birthday.

We are delighted that we have already managed to deliver many highly successful events to celebrate our wonderful town.

Our official launch event – Garden City Lights –  lit up the town on 17 and 18 January 2020 and was enjoyed by over 20,000 people.

The 2020 bulbs which each of 20 primary schools planted last autumn are now in full bloom.

Our first sports event was orienteering in February with five courses in Sherrardspark Woods.

Over 200 talented residents of all ages from 11 music and performing arts groups entertained many people in the Howard Centre and our first Love to Sing workshop enjoyed by many first time singers.

To appreciate the beauty of our green space, the 20.20km Centenary Walk through villages and countryside is now complete.  You can download our leaflet from our Centenary Walk pages.

Four new trails have been launched in our City of Trees project to celebrate the c. 19,000 trees which can be found across the town. The four leaflets can be downloaded from our City Of Trees Page.

In the 4th year of our schools photographic competition, we have already received nearly 400 entries with the theme of Celebrations.

A life sized bronze sculpture of Sir Ebenezer Howard has been  cast – a celebration of his vision for Welwyn Garden City – ‘a true marriage of town and country’.  The statue will be unveiled in the town centre later this year.

We all look forward to celebrating with you as soon as we are able.  In the meantime, check out our social media channels for some of our virtual celebrations in Welwyn Garden City’s 100th year.

We would like to extend sincere thanks to all our sponsors, partners and volunteers, without whom our fantastic year of celebrations would not have been possible