A new town with seven villages is being built just outside London

For the country bumpkins among us, there’s nothing better than slipping on a pair of wellies and getting a whiff of the fresh rural air. Easy access to beautiful wildlife and freedom from traffic jams and air pollution are just some of the major upsides to living in the country – but if you want all that and the perks of living in a city, exactly that could be coming to just outside London.

Gilston, a new community development in Hertfordshire, will be made up of 10,000 new homes across seven interconnected villages. 

Gilston will be a modern extension of Harlow, an existing town just across the county border in Essex. Harlow is half an hour from Liverpool Street by train, meaning Gilston could have a best-of-both-worlds mix of country surroundings and city access.

Better yet, Gliston itself sounds like it’ll be an idyllic, leafy sort of place. The development’s seven villages will all be interlinked through a network of greenspaces and woodland, while animal habitats, woodlands and three new country parks are included in the plans.

Plus, a sustainable transport network will connect the different villages, including 17km of cycle and pedestrian routes to encourage people to walk and bike their way around the town. Gilston’s design deliberately differs from modern UK ‘car cities’ which have been designed to be easily drivable – think Milton Keynes, Stevenage or Cumbernauld in Scotland.

Plans for the brand new community include two secondary schools and up to seven primary schools, as well as a community centre, health centre and youth facility. Plus, the seven villages will also be decked out with new sports and leisure centres.

Places for People, the developer behind the project, has described the plans as a blueprint for how future communities can be created. Residents will start to move into the site over the next few years, and the whole project is expected to be complete by 2050.

Gilston is a separate project to the towns proposed by the government’s New Towns Taskforce last October. Three towns are set to be built just outside London and two – at Crews Hill in Enfield and Thamesmead in Greenwich – will be inside the city limits.

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