Welwyn Garden City (/ˈwɛlɪn/ WEL-in) is a town in the Welwyn Hatfield district, in Hertfordshire, England, 20 miles (32 km) north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town and exemplifies the physical, social and cultural planning ideals of the periods in which it was built. In 2021 it had a population of 51,505.
Welwyn Hatfield is a local government district with borough status in the county of Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Welwyn Garden City. The borough borders Hertsmere, St Albans, North Hertfordshire, East Hertfordshire, Broxbourne, and the London Borough of Enfield.
The borough includes the two towns of Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, along with numerous smaller settlements from Woolmer Green in the north to Cuffley in the south. The borough has six railway stations on the Great Northern Railway; five being on the main line and one on the Hertford loop line. The Digswell Viaduct is a local landmark. The A1 road passes through the borough.
Stevenage (/ˈstiːvənɪdʒ/ STEE-vən-ij) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about 28 miles (45 km) north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage was designated the United Kingdom's first New Town under the New Towns Act. In 2021 it had a population of 94,456.
St Albans (/sənt ˈɔːlbənz/) is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, 20 miles (32 km) north-west of London, 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Welwyn Garden City and 11 miles (18 km) south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north and became the city of Verulamium. It has a population of 82,146.
Andy Lomas (born 1967 in Welwyn Garden City, England) is a British artist with a mathematical background, formerly a television and film CG supervisor and more recently a contemporary digital artist, with a special interest in morphogenesis using mathematical morphology.
Lomas previously worked on visual effects using computer graphics (CGI) for television and films such as The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and Avatar (2009). before becoming a digital artist. In 2006 he appeared in The Tech of 'Over the Hedge', a short documentary. With his collaborators, in 1999 Lomas won the 51st Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries or a Movie for the 1999 film Alice in Wonderland.
Tesco plc (/ˈtɛs.koʊ/) is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in the United Kingdom at its head offices in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Sir Jack Cohen in Hackney, London, in 1919. In 2011, it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK (where it has a market share of around 28.4%). As well as the United Kingdom, Tesco has stores in Czechia, Ireland, Slovakia, the Isle of Man and Hungary.
Since the 1960s, Tesco has diversified into areas such as the retailing of books, clothing, electronics, furniture, toys, petrol, software, financial services, telecommunications and internet services. In the 1990s, Tesco re-positioned itself from being a downmarket high-volume low-cost retailer, attempting to attract a range of social groups with its low-cost "Tesco Value" range (launched 1993) and premium "Tesco Finest" range.
The garden city movement was a 20th-century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and agriculture. Ebenezer Howard first posited the idea in 1898 as a way to capture the primary benefits of the countryside and the city while avoiding the disadvantages presented by both. In the early 20th century, Letchworth and Welwyn Garden City were built near London according to Howard's concept and many other garden cities inspired by his model have since been built all over the world.
Sir Frederic James Osborn (1885–1978) was a leading member of the UK Garden city movement and was chairman of the Town and Country Planning Association. He lived in Welwyn Garden City with his wife and fellow campaigner Lady Margaret Paterson Osborn, the garden city he helped create, and a local school (Sir Frederic Osborn School) was named after him in 1968.