Welwyn Garden City
From World travel guide
Welwyn Garden City is a town (not a city) in Hertfordshire, England. Welwyn Garden City is also known as WGC or, somewhat incorrectly, Welwyn, although this can cause confusion with the village called Welwyn which lies a few miles to the northwest of WGC.
Welwyn Garden City, as its name suggests, is a "garden city", founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in the 1920s following his previous experiments in Hampstead Garden Suburb and Letchworth Garden City. Howard had called for the creation of new towns of limited size, planned in advance, and surrounded by a permanent belt of agricultural land, as a role model for lower-density suburban development. Howard believed that such Garden Cities were the perfect blend of city and nature.
The BBC TV series Superstars was famously filmed in Welwyn Garden City throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
Famous Welwyn Garden City former and current residents include The Subways, David James (footballer), Artist Damien Hirst, Nick Faldo (golfer), Lisa Snowdon (model) and Rolling Stones' Mick Taylor.
Welwyn Garden City is well known by avid readers of the side of breakfast cereal boxes in Britain as the town where Shredded Wheat and Shreddies are made, at the former Nabisco factory (now part of Nestlé).
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Get in
Trains run roughly every twenty minutes to WGC from London. The bus station is serviced by local buses only - no national express services.
Get around
WGC is small enough to walk around for any able-bodied person. Taxis are available from the rank at the front of the Howard Centre if required.
See
The Shredded Wheat Factory can be seen from the train. No tours. Thats about as much as you can do save walk across the (now listed) footbridge and breathe in the intoxicating smell of pressed wheat.
Do
Stanborough Lakes [1] is a pleasant recreational area offering fishing, boating, swimming as well as wide open spaces for dog walking and sun bathing. It is 30 minutes walk from the town centre or 5 minutes in a taxi.
Campus West cinema and theatre [2] shows a range of productions and offers a bar serving alcoholic drinks which is open for the duration of the entertainment.
Buy
John Lewis [3] took over Welwyn Department Stores in the 1980's and offers a grand shopping experience without the hussle and bustle of a london store. Now open 7 days a week.
Eat
There are several good cafes on Howardsgate (the main avenue leading up to the howard's centre).
Drink
The Doctor's Tonic has a lively and young crowd most days of the week as well as live music upstairs on wednesdays. There is also an O'Neills Irish theme pub just off Howardsgate. This is small however on nights when London Derby matches are played, it can get quite raucous. The Cork right in the town centre is the place to go if you want a lively pub. If you want something a bit more relaxed, go to The Sun or The Long Arm And Short Arm which are right next to eachother in Lemsford which is 5 minutes taxi ride or 30 minutes walk from town.
Sleep
There is a Quality Hotel next to Junction 6 of the A1(M). http://www.infotel.co.uk/15170
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