As I have been given some free web space I felt I should use it to cover some claim to fame that I have. After many seconds of searching my memory bank I came up with zero which should means I still have my 15min of fame to come. So then it was left to where I live and what would keep you on the edge of your seat? Please remember to steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research so bearing this in mind........

The First Garden City has a few claims of  fame. One which is little known is recorded as having the first roundabout, the first 'intersection for gyratory movement' in Britain called Sollershott circus. It was constructed in 1910 at the southern end of the Broadway intersecting with Sollershott East and West and was part of the First Garden City design. For the first twenty odd years after it was built there was no indication as to which was the right way to go round as it was more intended to help pedestrians more than motorists - with cars getting faster and more numerous, too many people were getting stuck in the middle of the road as they tried to cross it was reported. The roundabout today is part of the Grade II registered park and gardens at Letchworth a protected monument that is not marked as being the first which I find quite strange 2004. (Now marked click here to see recent photo)

When I first came to Letchworth in 1972 it was a town with no pubs apart from the one on the Grange Estate called the Pelican and the  Carousel  on the Jackmans which was a Watneys Red Barrel pub. Both these pubs were allowed due to the London overspill that took place in the 50s and the 1970s as it was felt the people of London would never leave without having a local watering hole. The people of Letchworth did have a watering hole called the Wilbury Hotel which had two bars that was just outside the town's border. Today the Carousel is no more like Watneys Red Barrel the very first draft beer. The Wilbury went downhill when it became an eating place. The pub on the Grange that was called The Pelican was the place to be on a Thursday night with DJ Vic Harris. The pub was re-branded to Ebenezeers which is like kicking a man when he's down in my view.

The people of Letchworth had tried to change the rules six times that I can find, then in 1957 2644 residents of Letchworth Garden City voted in favour of a licensed hotel with a licensed bar serving alcoholic drinks. In truth it was not the first public bar. Back In 1907 The Skittles Inn opened in Nevells Road as a pub with no beer, selling only soft drinks. Today Ebenezer Howard would be turning in his grave due to the amount alcoholic drinks that are consumed within his Garden City. I could go on but I'm tooooooooooo drunk to bother, hick. click here to view the public houses I can drink and be merry hic.

Letchworth is the world's First Garden City, established by the founder of the Garden City movement, Ebenezer Howard. In 1903 Howard had wanted to combine the advantages of town and country living, whilst avoiding the disadvantages of both. The original Garden City plans were drawn up by architects Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin , to include parks and open spaces, with tree lined streets with low density housing taken from  Ebenezer Howard's book To-morrow: a peaceful path to real reform, published by Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd in 1898 the book was re-named four years later Garden Cities of To-morrow. In 1907 Barry Parker designed an offices for himself and Raymond Unwin on Norton Way South, Later Parker added living accommodation. Today the property is a museum that contains a record of the architects Parker and Unwin, with the gallery housing various exhibitions of local interest. In 1973 the property was extended to add a gallery to the museum.

If you enter Letchworth via the first UK roundabout and drive down the Broadway you will see a fountain that was built on some 3.7 acres of open space. This was not the first fountain, back in June 1959 The Letchworth Round Table at a cost of £600.00 had one built to commemorate their Silver Jubilee and was sited in the centre of the gardens with an ornamental pool . Then in 1963 after an event that happened in Dealey Plaza, Texas the name was changed to John. F. Kennedy Gardens in memory none other than JFK a liberal saint, who would have implement so many policies that would have brought America into a new Utopia, but Lee Harvey Oswald an ex US Marine took his life from the open window of the School Book Depository for reasons we may never know.

Then in 1977 the original fountain was replaced by the Letchworth Garden City Corporation to mark the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's II accession to the throne. Over the years it fell into disrepair and was bricked over after the fountain pump burnt out due to people pouring soap powder into the water. Today it is no longer called Kennedy Gardens just plain ‘Broadway Gardens’ it's a shame the name was changed for without John. F. Kennedy Letchworth, the world as we know may have gone up in a big mushroom in the 60s if Kennedy had lost his nerve.

This latest fountain cost in the region of £1.25m which they say did included work to Broadway Walk. If you look hard enough you will see the soap powder monkeys are back, lets hope they don't brick this one over. click on the thumb nail to view. The gardens have also been the centre of activity for the Society's One Day Fun Day, held on the second Saturday of July

The photos below is of Bedford Road with sycamore trees and Redhoods Way East with its flowering cherry trees. The trees of Bedford Road are the wrong type of tree as they are forest trees and should not have been used. The trees are suffering with canker and have had a lot of dead wood cut out in 2008

Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the snake, the snake didn't have a leg to stand on.

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