Stevenage Town Centre

Stevenage town centre the first traffic-free shopping centre in Britain officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in April 1959

Although other local authorities had made gestures in this direction, Stevenage was the first, "to go the whole hog" in the words of in Leonard  Vincent the chief planner and architect for the new town


Stevenage was created under the Abercrombie Plan of 1944, the aim of the new towns was to relieve overcrowding in London and to provide decent homes for returning servicemen and their families; the towns were to be self-contained, providing work (offices and factories), schools, health care, shops, community centres and churches.