Blogs from Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe

The A1 rushes by not a couple of miles from the sea of tranquillity that is Letchworth. Letchworth is the world’s first Garden City, created as a reaction to and a solution for the squalor and poverty of urban life in Victorian Britain in the late 1800s. Letchworth was the brainchild of Ebenezer Howard, the visionary Victorian social reformer who was inspired by the new towns being built for their workers by such as Unilever, Cadburys and Rowntrees. The developments at Port Sunlight, Bournville and in York prompted his writings to turn into reality in a bid to halt the rush of workers from the country to the miserable fate that awaited many in London. Howards’s book, “Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Reform”, was published in 1898 and the first Garden City Association conference was held ... read more

Hello Everyone! I haven't posted a blog in a little while...so...what HAVE I been up to??? Well, for starters I have actually been doing some homework. I turned in a fiche technique and a revue de presse yesterday, and I have been reading all about Giuseppe Verdi in preparation for an oral expose in my class "Discovery of the Opera" next Tuesday. Actually, preparing the expose is tomorrow's project. I have been enjoying "discovering" the opera during the semester and have even managed to get to TWO in the past few weeks! The National Opera of Paris We are lucky to have two opera houses here in Paris, the classic Opera Garnier (where The Phantom of the Opera was set) and the more modern Opera Bastille (opened in 1989). The Director of the National Opera of ... read more