Cycling and Walking in Fleetville

 Fleetville has always been subject to suggested changes; you might say there have been plenty of ideas, although most have bitten the dust before seeing the light of day.  There was to be the new road between Sandfield Road and Camp Road, which got as far as Roland Street/Campfield Road because someone else paid for it.  There was the roundabout to replace the first one at the Crown junction; that became the 'teccy' traffic lights (and not before time).  Once The Quadrant had opened in 1959, there was a suggestion to replicate the idea somewhere along Hatfield Road and take more of the shoppers' parking off the main road;  I don't think they had Morrison's in mind.  Oh, and there was a proposal for an underground car park at the Rec – yes, where and how would they have sent the sub-soil? By road of course.

Hatfield Road walking and cycling anywhere you want in 1906.

The main road has been widened in places, but we still have to breathe in as we descend the narrow hill towards The Crown.

We may have benefitted from the building of the St Albans' bypass in the 1920s, but we could have done with another rethink in the 1960s.  In fact, with the closure of the branch railway line someone thought it would be great to send traffic between Holywell Hill, London Road and Hatfield Road at Colney Heath Lane.  No, that didn't get anywhere; neither did the plan to extend the Abbey Line onto the "Alban Way" route to Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City.

A car-less Blandford Road in 1907
Courtesy HALS

As the number of cars per household increased passing through the parallel roads became more challenging, not least for residents, but also for drivers trying to pass each other having met in the middle from each end.  The one-way concept did not meet with majority approval, and zoning is the latest idea for parking, but of course that has put pressure on roads just outside the zone.

Tunnel parking in Sandfield Road
Courtesy Google Earth

The new proposal up for discussion is a Low Traffic Neighbourhood. LTNs attempt to address several deficiencies in the current road network.  First of all it tries to ensure those who live in the LTN are able to move around within their patch with greater ease.  Keeping rat-running to a minimum so that drivers who nave no need to be in or pass through the zone are dissuaded, and vehicles which need to be there a maximum speed is reduced to 20mph. By these three measures cleaner air near people's homes should be possible.

But there is a second range of possibilities through reducing the number of vehicle movements and speeds;  the zone has pavements which are narrow and close parking head to tail is inevitable. Visibility for pedestrians can be limiting and is no better for cyclists.  With shops close by it is hoped that cycling and walking can become the default methods of travel.

The proposed Low Traffic Neighbourhood bounded by Hatfield Road, Beechwood Avenue, Sandpit Lane and the Midland Railway
Courtesy Hertfordshire County Council

The county council would be designing the scheme if it proceeds, and that would include signs and alterations to improve visibility at junctions.  But no doubt other arrangements would be considered.  Unfortunately, its website does not show what has been achieved in other places where LTNs have been introduced.  Without such examples it is difficult for us to imagine and comment meaningfully what a Low Traffic Neighbourhood might impact on the lives of Fleetville residents, whether we live inside or beyond the boundaries of the zone.

Residents have until 16th March to make their comments.  The website is www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/activetravelfund.  Responses can be made directly from the website.

Park View

 In the previous post we virtually walked along Granville Road, one of the three roads which formed the 1880s residential development of Hatfield Road field.  At the Hatfield Road end of this road the residents had been given the benefit of their own entrance to Clarence Park once that had opened in 1894.  That gate is now blocked off, but from the perimeter path in the park it is still possible to to see where it was.  And that would have been quite a steep ramp from Hatfield Road.

Hidden behind the foliage is the former gate opposite Granville Road.  Today the old ramp has been
made steeper than the old path.

Where the Hatfield Road Bridge park entrance is the maximum height of the embanked road, and the timber zig-zag pathway before it was replaced recently.

Keep walking along the perimeter path towards the Midland railway and the surface of Hatfield Road on your left keeps climbing towards the bridge.  That helps us to understand how several of the Clarence Villas were built.  There had been little difference in the elevation of the land in what would later become the park – still the fete field in the 1860s – and that in the Hatfield Road field; just a gentle gradient.

In fact gradients play a key part in The Crown corner. Hatfield Road drops down from Cavendish Road to the Crown junction.  Turn left and there is a further fall through the entrance into Camp Road; turning right into Stanhope Road and the gradient increases, only levelling out beyond the Stanhope Road shops.  If you had walked along Hatfield Road from The Crown towards the city before the mid 1860s the ground would have been quite level until you reached the beginning of the city hill, where is the original Loreto College building.  Undertaking the same walk today would be very different, with a long steady climb to the bridge and then down again westwards past Lemsford Road; notice too the steep gradient turning left into Beaconsfield Road.  All of our route would be on made-up ground.

Just five years after the railway opening the embanked Hatfield Road (where the number 412.092 is on one side and the blue lake on the other) shows where the subsoil was placed. Beaconsfield Road is where the line of trees is drawn on the map.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Hatfield Road between the bridge and The Crown junction with the embanked road on both
sides.  It is presumed the Nursery was to stabilise the ground before the villas were built.
The road leading towards the Goods Shed is today's Station Way.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Much heavy manual work was undertaken in removing subsoil from the railway cutting and creating an embankment on both sides of the railway in Hatfield Road to enable traffic to pass over the bridge; it is that embankment we noticed when we took the perimeter path in the park.

Two views of the upper row of villas. To the right of the top view it is possible to spot the rear garden space is below road level.
Top view: COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW

So, what has this to do with the Clarence Villas in Hatfield Road?  Look carefully and the architect has taken a design opportunity with those villas west of Granville Road. They were built with a lower ground floor – the original ground level – with a short flight of steps up to the front entry at first floor level above the new street level.  Although the front view from the lower floor would have been limited to the the embankment itself, the rear garden would have opened directly from the rear living space.  Extra living space without the expense of excavating deeper foundations.

The OS map of 1898 with the undeveloped plot (orange) in the middle of the
lower group of villas. A track from Hatfield Road leads to a narrow building 
against the rear boundary.  In a few years this would become the first site of
W O Peake Ltd, the coat manufacturer.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Between The Crown junction and Granville Road building development had been slower and the infill from the railway had been levelled out, providing for much easier house building.  Today we only have map evidence as none of the original homes survive.  But you will notice there is a large plot in the middle with a path leading from the road to a narrow building against the rear of the plot, much as we find in other occasional unfinished streets.  If anyone has an idea about the function of these narrow boundary buildings the author would be pleased to know.

In the same location as the 1898 map above, the Peake's factory has consumed the whole of
the Hatfield Road frontage and has built deep into Granville Road.  This is the OS 1963 map.
COURTESY ORDNANCE SURVEY OLD OS MAPS

In 1911 Mr William Peake moved onto the middle plot with the intention of making coats.  And the rest, as they say, is history; a history which came to dominate this part of Hatfield Road, and St Albans itself. Too detailed for this post and definitely requiring a blog all to itself.