Agneta Park

Agnetapark is a garden village on the edge of Delft, and it is one of the earliest and best-known examples of planned worker housing in the Netherlands. It was created in the 1880s by Jacques van Marken, the director of the Delftsche Gist- en Spiritusfabriek, the Delft yeast and spirits factory, and he named it after his wife, Agneta Matthes. Van Marken was an unusual industrialist who believed that employers had a duty to look after the welfare of their workers, and the park was one of the most visible expressions of that belief.

The layout owes much to English landscape gardening. Rather than rows of identical streets, the houses are set among lawns, ponds, curving paths and groups of mature trees, so the whole feels like a private park shared by all the residents. The Dutch landscape architect Leonard Springer is credited with the design of the park. The brick houses are plain but well built, many with decorative touches, and the larger ones were intended for different kinds of workers and their families. The idea was to give the people who worked in the factory a clean, healthy and attractive place to live, with access to light, air and green space.

Van Marken's ideas went well beyond housing. His company ran a school, a library, a theatre, a cooperative shop and other social facilities, along with profit-sharing and other benefits that were advanced for the time. The park is part of that system, and it is sometimes described as an early example of what became known as the garden city movement. It is protected as a national monument, and the area still feels more like a country park than a typical suburb.

Today Agnetapark is still a residential neighbourhood, so visitors walk through as guests in someone's home. Paths are generally open to the public, and the ponds, bridges and statues give pleasant views. A monument to Agneta stands in the park. Spring is particularly beautiful, with blossom and bulbs, and autumn brings colour in the old trees.

The park is a short ride from the centre of Delft, which offers the Markt, the canal boat tours, the old churches and the Vermeer Centre. The park suits social history enthusiasts, architecture lovers and walkers who want to see something different from the old town. A visit takes about an hour. Keep noise down and respect residents' privacy.