Both Howardsgate and Parkway have twin roadways, they reflect the founder of the town Ebenezer Howard’s liking for ‘grand boulevards’ that he developed during his working in America. The circular floor plaque for Sir Ebenezer Howard that was located at the top of Howardsgate since 1960 was replaced in April 2021 with a specially commissioned 2.2m tall bronze statue, by artist Ben Twiston-Davies. The statue was commissioned by the Welwyn Garden City Centenary Foundation as part of the town’s 2020 centenary celebrations. The half-ton bronze sculpture rests on a plinth of Welsh slate with three hand-carved rings of lettering including words from William Blake’s Jerusalem. The spade rests on the word ‘sword’, which emphasises Howard’s pacifists' desire for peaceful reform.

The twin boulevards of Howardsgate and Parkway demonstrate the desire of the town’s planner, Louis de Soissons’, to create a strong town centre, with a green garden at its heart, emphasising Sir Ebenezer Howard’s key concept of the “marriage of town and country”. The Howard statue is located by the rose beds at the top of Howardsgate.

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The original station was opened here in 1926, once the railway company was convinced it would be profitable. It was demolished in 1988 as part of the development of the Howard Centre and reopened in its current form in 1990.

The photo below shows Neville Chamberlain (the then Minister for Health) opening the station in 1926.

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