Town in Hertfordshire, England
Stevenage
Locals renamed their station 'Silkingrad' in protest in 1946, and Stevenage still became Britain's first new town.
Key information
- County
- Hertfordshire
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Britain's first post-war new town, designated in 1946
- Famous people
- Lewis Hamilton, E. M. Forster
- Football clubs
- Stevenage FC, nicknamed Boro
About Stevenage
The town that sulked its way into history
In 1946 Lewis Silkin, the Labour minister for town and country planning, announced that a sleepy Hertfordshire market town would become the first of Britain's post-war new towns. Stevenage did not say thank you. Residents were furious at the prospect of tens of thousands of Londoners arriving on their doorstep. Someone altered the sign at the railway station to read 'Silkingrad', a dig at the minister's supposedly Soviet-style planning. Silkin was met with an angry meeting, and objectors took the plan to court. They won at first, but the decision was overturned. Stevenage was designated on 11 November 1946, and a town of around 6,000 people began growing into one of many tens of thousands.
A shopping centre without cars
The new Stevenage town centre was a bold experiment. Opened in 1959, it was the first in Britain designed around pedestrians, with shops grouped along traffic-free streets and Queensway as its spine. The Queen Mother came to open it. Its Town Square, with the Clock Tower and the playful Joy Ride sculpture by Franta Belsky, became a poster image for modern planning. The town was also laid out with a network of separate cycle tracks, so people could cross it without sharing a road with lorries. That was an unusual idea in the 1950s and 1960s, and it still shapes how Stevenage feels today.
Before the new town: the Great North Road stop
The new town is a recent layer. The Old Town, along the High Street, goes back to Anglo-Saxon times, when the place was called Stithenaece, meaning 'at the strong oak'. It appears in Domesday Book as Stigenace. Stevenage grew up as a coaching stop on the Great North Road, where horses were changed and travellers fed on the way between London and the north. The parish church of St Nicholas and old coaching inns still stand in the Old Town. Near the road you can also find Six Hills, a row of six Roman burial mounds on London Road, a reminder that people were passing through here long before Silkin's planners arrived.
Home of a Formula One champion
Stevenage's most famous son is Lewis Hamilton, born here in 1985. He went to school in the town and raced karts as a boy, and he went on to win seven Formula One world titles. The novelist E. M. Forster also has a Stevenage connection. He spent his childhood at Rooksnest, a farmhouse just outside the town, which inspired the house in his novel Howards End. The town's modern economy is every bit as futuristic as its planning. Satellites are built by Airbus Defence and Space, missile systems by MBDA, and the bioscience campus beside GSK's site has made Stevenage a base for drug research.
Boro: the club that went to Wembley
Stevenage FC, known as Boro, play at Broadhall Way. In 1996 they won the Conference but were denied promotion because the ground was not up to Football League standards. They did not give up. In 2007 they won the FA Trophy 3-2 against Kidderminster Harriers in the first final at the new Wembley. They joined the Football League in 2010 and were promoted to League One in 2011 through the play-offs at Old Trafford. That same year, in January 2011, they beat Newcastle United 3-1 at Broadhall Way in the FA Cup third round, with no replay needed.
What to see and do
Start at the Town Square, then walk to Stevenage Museum, which tells the story of the town from Roman times to the new town years. Next, head to the Gordon Craig Theatre for comedy and touring shows. Fairlands Valley Park offers lakes, sailing and green space within the town boundary. For a more traditional day out, nearby Knebworth House has been used for huge rock concerts since the 1970s. Then head to the Old Town for a pint at one of the old coaching inns. You are following a route travellers have used for centuries.