Gaborone - never a Garden City!

Sandy Grant | Wednesday December 10, 2014 14:28

 

Whether it was, or it was not is perhaps a question which will interest or even bother only a small number of people – the majority, very understandably, having little idea about those British Garden Cities, when they were established and what were their special, distinguishing and distinctive characteristics.

On the other hand, the small town planning community, which is the one which will have the greatest influence on the future of Gaborone, should set aside claims which really are irrelevant to it.

Fortuitously, my long-standing friend, Trevor Bottomley, first Registrar of Cooperative Societies in this country, found Wareus’ article in Mmegi on the internet – The Planning History of Gaborone (28 November) and promptly reacted.

In this article, Wareus refers to, ‘an early attempt by the planners to introduce a typical, well reflected Garden City layout restricted in growth to about 25,000 people…putting a limit on the growth of a garden city was not a problem, conceptually to them’.

Bottomley emailing me from Letchworth, the first of the British Garden Cities, where he has been resident for the last forty years, said that whilst he enjoyed the article – he did have one objection – ‘that this pretence or assumption that the “planning” of Gaborone was ever conditioned by the “garden city” concept.

 I was there (in Gaborone), was privy to many of the discussions/consultations then proceeding, was given access to the “plans on paper”, and (may I make the point) was the very first resident of the new “town”.

I never heard the phrase “garden city” used: not, that is, until I came to live in the acknowledged “first” of the Garden Cities in England, Letchworth (!).

My own minor contribution to this debate is to suggest that the Letchworth leaflet, part of which is reproduced here, can prove exceptionally helpful in pinning down the issue.

In particular, I suggest that population size alone should not be used as the key factor which determines whether a town/small city qualifies to be described as a garden city.

Instead, the focus should zero in on the fact that the city of Letchworth is legally established as a Heritage Foundation with all profits being re-invested directly back into the Garden City.

In addition it should be noted that one of its early objectives was (and probably continues to be) the provision of better and more affordable housing for the poor.

Gaborone is a straight forward government city from which no profits are derived which could then be reinvested in the city – for instance in providing better and more affordable for the residents of Old Naledi.

Finally I might mention that I did, some time ago, Google Garden Cities in Africa and learnt that there is just the one - a neighbourhood area of Cape Town whose name I have now forgotten.