,5 honer Notices
Green-Belt Cities. By F. J. Osborn. (Faber and Faber. -12s. 6d.)
THE publication of this survey by a writer with wide experience of town-planning--Mr. Osborn is chairman of the executive of the Town and Country Planning Association and one of the pioneers in the establishment of Letchworth (1904) and Welwyn (192o) —coincides with the issue of the interim report of the New Towns Committee. The book will therefore be useful in giving a background to the report—a very long background, for in one of his appendices Mr. Osborn takes us to Palestine in the thir- teenth century B.C. His survey begins with an analysis of Ebenezer Howard's Garden Cities of Tomorrow, published in 1898, describes the growth of Letchworth and Welwyn, and follows planning ideas in this century, showing how the garden-city idea was generally swamped in the erection of " garden suburbs "—some good, some bad, but all adding to the growth of the large towns—and then how after the last war came an " age of chaos " when there was no clear understanding of -what was necessary, but those anxious to protect country amenities were often converted to the idea of increasing town densities of population by the erection of flats (after the Vienna model). Mr. Osborn is quite sure that life in flats is undesirable, and welcomes the present " New Towns " idea as a return to sanity. Public interest, previously sluggish—both the Letchworth and Welwyn companies were under-subscribed—has been stimulated 1:), the need of rebuilding after the raids ; and now is the time for English people to decide on the kind of homes they want. The New Towns Committee, at any rate, agrees with Mr. Osborn's advocation of towns surrounded with green belts with populations of about 3o,000 (the report says 20,000 to 6o,000), with possibly a diversity of agents, including private companies, to build them. The book is written in an easy genial style and illustrated with pleasant photo- graphs—not a book for everybody, but a book for everybody inter- ested in town-planning and public welfare.
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