Junction by design?

The country end of Sweetbriar Lane!

During the Second World War it was deemed essential by someone in charge that the road junction at The Crown should be protected by road blocks.  It is likely that wardens and guards queued to volunteer for this duty as their mess was The Crown Hotel.  The records at Hertfordshire Archives specified the number of yards from the junction a road block was to be set up.  They do not specify exactly what kind of block, but possibly concrete blocks and iron bars.  They were to be set up in Stanhope Road, Clarence Road and the two arms of Hatfield Road.  The block on the eastern arm just east of Albion Road.  So, that just leaves Camp Road, which apparently had no road block at all, but no explanation was given.  Of course, any alien vehicle driver with a map could turn into Cavendish Road and exit Cecil Road and thereby avoid the block altogether – but that would depend on what they were up to!

Stanhope Road meets The Crown.

A strategic junction The Crown may have been, but no-one in their right minds would have designed a junction this way.  It is rather a mess.  So let's explore how it came to be.  Hatfield Road from the east drops down a little hill (possible sign of a former stream valley) before bending to the right en-route towards St Peter's Church; but other than climbing out of the little valley there was no long climb to the bridge as there is today; that was a construct of the railway.

At the bend arrived a backwater lane which for centuries had wound its way past hamlets and villages, supporting the tiny rural population needing access to the town market and its parish church.  In the 1750s a small toll house appeared at the junction, roughly where the postbox is today.  Travellers from now on would be entering and using a privately run highway, a turnpike road.  Inevitably it did not take long for a few travellers with carts or animals to find ways around the problem, avoiding the junction, possibly with the agreement of the landowner, or possibly not.

A roundabout of sorts at The Crown.
Courtesy St Albans' Museums

By the time the next road to be added to the junction came about, the "illegals" – travellers avoiding payment, had become used to picking their way and making an entry to the town where a little lane, known locally as Sweetbriar Lane, finally petered out.  Sweetbriar is now Victoria Street.

It probably wasn't surprising, therefore, that when the wedge of land we know as Stanhope and Granville roads was being developed a road connection between Hatfield Road and Victoria Street was created, with the junction just a few yards before the toll house!  By the time the road was laid, however, the turnpiked Hatfield Road was taken over by the Highways Board and the tolls dispensed with.  Drive today from Hatfield Road east, turn left and then sharp right into Stanhope Road, and then imagine trying the same manoeuvre with larger carts or carriages with two or even four horses.  Not surprising, therefore, that a new roadway sprang up (still there today) to leave Hatfield Road obliquely, and in front of The Crown Hotel (the road was there first; The Crown arrived later).  All of which created a little crossroads.  Not much of a problem before homes began to appear, but it's not surprising that the little road in front of The Crown was eventually closed, although it was useful in creating an informal roundabout at one stage.

The park once included all of this street area; at least the
building of the toilets opened up a view for motorists
looking right.  Courtesy St Albans' Museums

The last road to join the junction was Clarence Road.  Not a road at all before the 1890s and the opening of the park; the opening went just  as far as the present park gates, its purpose being to give access to the farm buildings (now Clarence Park Mews and the Conservative Club).  Once houses were built, though, you probably wouldn't want to drive to the Crown Junction and risk easing out without knowing what was coming down the hill from the right.  Until the early 1930s the park fences, shrubs and trees came right down to the corner, until the park was cut right back when the public toilets (now Verdi's) were built in the early 1930s.

As you see, rather a messy junction.