Sir Ebenezer Howard, garden city founder

Born in 1850 in London, Ebenezer Howard was the son of a confectioner. After leaving school, he became a clerk in the City of London, learning shorthand in his spare time. At 21, he moved to the USA and found work in Chicago as a stenographer. While living there, he witnessed the rebuilding of the city after the great fire of 1871.

Ebenezer returned to London in 1876, working as a shorthand writer and parliamentary reporter. This was at a time of rapid expansion for the city, and he investigated many housing and health issues.

In 1889, Ebenezer read a book that changed his life. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy (1888) imagined the USA in the year 2000, when technology and state monopoly capitalism had transformed the country into an ideal community. This inspired Ebenezer to write his own book To-Morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898), aiming to help “to bring a new civilisation into being”.

Ebenezer founded the International Garden Cities Association in 1913. He was knighted in 1927 and died a year later, but his ideas profoundly influenced town planning across the world.