Stevenage, a Primary Destination in Hertfordshire was designated a New Town in 1946, under the New Towns Act with the Stevenage Development Corporation being set up to plan and administer the town. An access road was built, which follows the following roads: Sish Lane, Popple Way, Silam Road, Inskip Crescent, Crossgates, Broom Walk, Homestead Moat, Rockingham Way and Elder Way. Initial construction of houses commenced with the Stoney Hall area (Old Town), with the Broom Barns and Monkswood housing areas opened in 1952. By 1959, the new town centre was complete and was opened by Queen Elizabeth II as the first pedestrianised high street in the country.
The original master plan was for six neighbourhoods of 10,000 houses each. Stevenage used experimental colour coded signage to indicate the area of the town you were in and provide each area, centred around its own community centre, featuring shops and a pub, a local identity. - street name plates in each area were originally coloured the same as the area colour, while on grid roads, directional signs used coloured boxes to indicate to drivers
Bedwell - Blue Broadwater - Brown Old Town (incl Symonds Green) - Grey Town Centre - Orange Industrial Area - Purple (Gunnels Wood) Shephall - Red Chells - Yellow Pin Green (incl St Nicholas) - Green Poplars - did not feature in the original colour coding system and appears to have white signs
The modern Stevenage Borough Council took over day to day administration of the new town in 1971, 25 years after the Development Corporation was created. Following the completion of the original objectives of the development corporation, six neighbourhoods of 10,000 people in each. Since then a number of new estates had been added mainly to the north & east of the town bring the current population to nearly 90,000, 50% more that originally planned.
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