The Cavendish Sandwich

 In the previous post mention was made of the narrow width of Hatfield Road as the carriageway descends from the cemetery to The Crown.  The first development occurred here from the 1880s – but only on the south side; it would be nearly two decades before the north side followed suit.

The OS map published in 1898 shows a mainly fully developed Cavendish estate, formerly
a tree and shrub nursery managed by John Watson. The properties described in this blog
are within the red rectangle.  For a few years occupants of this part of Hatfield Road 
would have the benefit of a view across to St Peter's Farm and the laurel grove.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND.

We have laid out the picture of the road as far as Cavendish Road, named after William Cavendish, the Sixth Duke of Devonshire and President of the Horticultural Society (before Royal embellished the title).  The Duke developed one of the country's finest orchid collections, and the street was named in his honour by St Albans' own Orchid King, Frederick Sander.

The next parallel road on Sander's development estate, is Albion Road.  Orchid specialists might wish to confirm whether Albion or Alba was an early variety of orchid named before 1921. The buildings standing on the corner of these two roads sandwich a terrace of homes named 1 to 5 Whitbread Terrace, now 168 to 160 Hatfield Road, and Laurel Cottage, now 158.

The forecourt of Butler's Garage on the Cavendish Road corner.  The workshop behind
incorporated the earlier saddlery and the boot manufactory.
COURTESY BRIAN BUTLER.

The site of Butler's Garage became homes in recent times.

On the Cavendish Road corner the plot, which has only become  housing in recent years, may well have been part of the land belonging to Shakespeare House (later renamed Shakespeare Cottage).  Since being released from nursery use in the late 1870s and being typical mixed development, the land may have remained a building yard for a few years before being taken into occupation by engineer Thomas Hurst. William Jenkinson then constructed a saddlery business on the site in a workshop which remained on the site until the new houses appeared.  A small but busy boot manufactory moved in and during the leather-working downtime a new Methodist mission occupied what spaces remained  on Sundays and in the evenings.  When that factory moved to new premises in Grosvenor Road tailor Daniel Mitchell arrived, and the site later  upgraded for use as a motor garage and workshop for Robb Butler in 1938.  Changing to Swan Car Hire in the 1960s the site was finally relinquished for domestic use by the  millennium.

Numbers 2 to 5 Whitbread Cottages.  The name plate for this terrace is at the top of the
righthand house.

Beyond the modern homes is a terrace of five small dwellings, originally named Whitbread Terrace,  erected in 1883 and benefiting from a view over the "lane" to the farm yard and homestead of St Peter's Farm. Most of the occupants remained here for many years. The owner of the terrace, revealed in the Valuation Office records of 1910 to 1915, was Caroline Shillitoe of Radcliffe Square London SW.  The name plate is fixed to the righthand dwelling.

The two detached houses as viewed in 1912.  On the left is Laurel Cottage, but though they began
as identical buildings the ID panel on the right house has the date 1889 and not Albion Villa, which suggests it was rebuilt on a slightly wider footprint, but otherwise reflecting its partner and the
date both houses were first built.

At the lower end of this terrace stand two identical detached properties with porched entrances and front bays. Today, while you can see the similarities there are also significant differences; it is not just the bay of the righthand house which was lost on conversion for commercial use.  In the eaves are inset panels naming the homes as Laurel Cottage and Albion Villa.  The upper part of the farm field opposite was a laurel grove, which offered the house its name, which  proceeded the naming of the short Laurel Road nearby.

Albion Villa in the era of E E Hooker Ltd, the glass specialists.  First floor windows have
designs of coloured glass which remain today.  This 1964 view shows all of the described
 buildings from Butler's Garage on the far left to the impressive frontage of E Hooker Ltd.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

William Willoughby and Charles Hooker preparing a portion of coloured glass window; a 1960
photograph to celebrate the commission to supply a window for Coventry Cathedral.
COURTESY HERTS ADVERTISER.

A member of the glassmaking E Hooker family moved into number 3 Albion Road around 1932 and the formative glass business was carried on in a workshop to the left of the house.  A few years later Albion Villa was a acquired and the ground floor converted into a sales area, with upstairs accommodation used for designing the richly coloured designs and motifs used in the company's work in commissions widely in this country and in churches and cathedrals around the world.

We now arrive at Albion Road and it seems appropriate that its name, like Cavendish, should have a link to orchids.  So the question deserves repeating: is there an orchid variety with the Albion name before a 1921 hybrid of the same name?

So we have nearly completed our exploration of Hatfield Road, there remaining one block to reach a conclusion, and possibly a pint, at The Crown.