vinculafido

  The spire of Leicester Cathedral When I think of ‘garden towns/suburbs’ my mind goes to Hampstead or Letchworth, where ambitions for new ways of urban living resulted in the idealised, pretty estates we see today. Not quite such beauty in the Humberstone Garden Village, which at first glance is virtually indistinguishable from other housing developments of the same era. Only the names of the roads – Laburnum, Lilac, Fern and Chestnut - tell you where you are. Nonetheless, the downbeat Leicester counterpart of those more famous initiatives remains a lasting memorial to socialist idealism. In late Victorian times the workers of a co-operatively run boot and shoe company formed a Housing Association which eventually resulted in this project of 97 houses being built east of old Humberstone. At its time it will have been a visionary, startling, improvement to the lives of those working people and their kids. The plain church building of 1910 carries a legend in stone above the front...