Bristol’s garden suburbs

Steve Hunt, author of Bristol Radical History Group book, Yesterday’s To-morrow: Bristol’s Garden Suburbs, will tour us through the principles and practical impact of the garden-city movement in our city. The 1918 Tudor Walters Report came with the well-known aspiration to build “homes fit for heroes” after the First World War. The interwar council housing boom that followed shaped much of the development of Bristol as we know it today. It aimed to create new neighbourhoods based on high-quality planning and housing design. This would transform the prospects for their residents by combining the best features of urban and rural life. There would be promises of employment within walking distance, and a cherry and apple tree in each garden.

This talk will survey the influence of garden-suburb style planning upon Bristol’s spatial geography, from the beginning of the Twentieth Century to the immediate post-War period. Municipal estates form a belt of homes around the parameter of the city, with the largest concentration of council housing in South Bristol, following the 1930’s development of Knowle West, outer Bedminster, and Bedminster Down. The interwar council housing programme has left a mixed legacy. This talk will celebrate the aspirations of garden-city principles, while considering its outcomes and shortcomings, asking what can we learn from this ambitious municipal experiment for Bristol’s future public housing?