Letchworth Garden City is not the prettiest town in Hertfordshire, but it is one of the most interesting. Founded in the early 20th century as the world's first garden city, it was built around the idea that workers should have green space, decent housing, civic amenities, and industry planned together rather than thrown at each other.
That experiment still gives Letchworth its character. The centre is spread out, the avenues are broad, and the best sights are less about individual monuments than about the plan: Broadway, Howard Park and Gardens, and the Arts and Crafts oddity of The Cloisters.
It pairs well with nearby Hitchin, which has the medieval market-town charm Letchworth deliberately moved beyond. Come to Letchworth when you want to see how a social idea became streets, parks, factories, and houses.