Sir Ebenezer Howard was a pioneer of town planning who developed the concept of the garden city. He was influenced by the overcrowding and poor conditions he witnessed in cities like London and Chicago. Howard proposed that towns and countryside each had benefits and drawbacks, but that a new type of settlement combining their advantages could be created. This was the garden city - a self-contained community surrounded by greenbelt land, with proportionate areas for housing, industry and agriculture. The first examples of garden cities were Letchworth and Welwyn, which aimed to provide the benefits of both urban and rural living.