Ten Years

 Although this blog had begun life a couple of years earlier, the current Blogspot format was launched in 2012 with the aspiration of publishing about three posts each month.  There was no intention to reach a ten-year lifespan, or in fact any set target, but here we are, ten years later and SAOEE blog is still going strong.  While the last year in which the target of thirty-six posts in a calendar year was reached was in 2014, I am pleased to have reached this total again in 2021.  Further, this post is number 350 in the current series.  I'll raise a glass to that on New Year's Eve.

I've chosen to look back at the festive period in the 1970s, to re-discover what events were making the news in our East End during that decade.  None of those selected recorded public celebratory events, so there was no reference to Christmas trees or other street decorations – we left that to the city centre – although many of the shops did create their own special display windows with little lights, cotton wool snow and Happy Christmas signs, and exhorted via signs invitations to purchase festive food, do-it-yourself decorations, and small trees and holly stems.

But the following all occurred in December and would have added an extra dimension to the local scene.

1970: A supermarket (a newish term in everyday use) was slated to open at Whitecroft, London Road, right on the edge of our patch. Named Downsway, its warehouse was owned by T W Downs which  had opened on the Butterwick Industrial estate a few years previously.  This small group later bought out another small chain, but later in the 1970s found itself selling to one of the big guys: Fine Fare.

1971: A postbox standing on the corner of Ely and Cambridge roads for many decades, suddenly became a headache because of its position – on private land – and the owner now wanted it moved from the space in front of the corner shop and onto public space. St Albans Council and GPO jointly agreed to it residing on the footpath a few yards away, where it remains today.

1972: Now that there was no land left on which to farm, the barn next to Cunningham Hill Farm homestead was being converted into two houses, one four-bedroomed and the other five-bedroomed (above).  A feature article in the Herts Advertiser stated the barn had been acquired by Michael Hunter from a Watford contracting firm, but had previously belonged to James Baum, of the last farming family at Cunningham. The barn was estimated to be 400 years old.  The existing roof tiles were retained and two-century-old bricks were brought from a Southwark church to fill the framework sections.

1973: In one of those subsidence alerts which occasionally come to light – and the holes sometimes produced – the end of the year brought the worrying news that a house in Sandpit Lane, the last to be finished just before the Second World War, was to be shored up because of unstable ground.  In testing the ground conditions there appeared to be a space between 15 and 80 feet depth.  The Herts Advertiser stated that other nearby homes were also affected.  An "unsettling" time for the house owners affected.  And just before Christmas.

1974: A decision had been made by Hertfordshire County Council that both the Girls' Grammar School and Boy's Grammar School were to be extended, in both buildings and pupil numbers, were to become all ability schools, and would, from the following September, change their names.  The boys' school in Brampton Road would henceforth be renamed Verulam School, while the Girls' School nominally removed the word Grammar, reducing its initials from STAGGS to STAGS.  The Girls' School had occupied today's Fleetville Juniors buildings until 1952.

1975: The extension of residential housing in Hatfield Road had strangely prompted a proposal to increase the road's speed limit from 30 to 40mph between Colney Heath Lane and Ryecroft Court.  After a period of intensive community lobbying, the speed upgrade did not take place, and the existing limits apply to this day.

1976: Hertfordshire County Council applied for planning consent for a new 40-place nursery unit at Fleetville Infants School, a year after the move of the Junior section to larger accommodation at the former Sandfield Road School.  The new unit, including development on the site of the closed police houses, which were also owned by the County Council, allowed for the closure of the temporary and inadequate Day Nursery erected in 1942 on the Recreation Ground. Fifty-five years later this temporary building is still in occupation by Fleetville Community Centre.

1977: From the 1920s until 1977 the St Albans Bypass was a three-lane single carriageway, although sufficient land had been purchased for dual three lane roads. One section had been dualled in the mid-1950s, but in December 1977 it was announced work would begin on converting two further sections to dual two lane carriageways: Noke to Park Street and London Colney to Colney Heath.  This work would greatly ease congestion throughout, but as we have some to experience capacity has been reached once more, especially at the roundabouts, and the benefits which once derived between Hatfield and St Albans are now behind us.

1978: Cllr Ronald Wheeldon was helping Fleetville bid for cash towards making the area a General Improvement Area (GIA), including a traffic management scheme.  Fleetville had been the subject of a scathing report by the Labour Party three years previously.  Castle, Cape, Sutton and Burleigh roads were assessed as being the most needy in the ward.

1979: In the ongoing tussle between the Council and St Albans Cooperative Society, another building design was submitted for the Society's proposed supermarket (on today's Morrison's site).  A number of Fleetville traders were concerned about their future livelihoods and a number of residents looked forward to improved shopping experiences, though many were greatly supportive of existing grocers and greengrocers.

So, in those years there was much to look forward to, as well as hopes for battles in progress.  As always, changes affect people in different ways; commercial takeovers may risk employment, especially worrying at the end of a year.  And many residents would continue to wait a long time for improvements to their living conditions.

The End of Our Road

 Recently I rediscovered a postcard photograph from circa 1914  showing off an almost new Glenferrie Road.  The street looked smart!  The photographer had set up his tripod in the middle of the road, probably halfway along the road, and his camera faced towards Hatfield Road.  The only sign of life captured was a road sweeper with his barrow, and I noted how wide the public space appeared to be; no parked cars, of course, and the footpaths were equally clear of rubbish bins, skips, data connection boxes, parking signs or  telephone wires carried on their sturdy posts.  And no white lines on the roadway or coloured spray paint on the pavement.  Litter? Not a wrapper to be found.  In this view just one small street light is  visible, and, if you look carefully, one posting box on the corner where the future Methodist Church will be built.

Many more pedestrians would have been be walking in one direction or the other, and as this photo was facing Hatfield Road, everyone's major view was about twenty feet of the south side of Hatfield Road unhindered by today's obstructions; the growing trees of the cemetery and a field tree predating the cemetery but now removed.  This was a fixed and identifiable scene with which householders were familiar.  East street end had, and still has, is own unique borrowed picture of the next road.  Unfortunately, similar photographs are not available of all of Fleetville's roads, and although today's roads are crowded I thought it might be useful to find Streetview images of nearby residential roads and focus on their own end of road fixed views.

The widest view presented to us is in Clarence Road just south of the park's main entrance; a view not much changed since 1900 – The Crown and the Stanhope Road shops.  Only the former post office, now Chilli Raj, is slightly newer.

Laurel Road may be short but provides same amount of view: Rose Cottage (the one with the cart drive under part of the house) and the first of the three Horndean Cottages just before Cavendish Road.

By the time we reach Blandford Road, the view is one of the views which include mature trees. We just miss seeing the main entrance to the cemetery, and just behind the frontage wall and trees is the entrance to the Manager's lodge.  Blandford Road emphasises the difficulty of cars passing each other while parking occupies both sides of the road and two-way working.

Glenferrie Road today, as one hundred years previously, provides us with a green backdrop to Hatfield Road, being at the eastern end of the cemetery.  The trees have grown more majestic and there are no buildings behind to be masked.  It can't of course be helped that this was the day the bins were collected.  Nevertheless most of the containers remain on the footpath all day and make it difficult for pedestrians generally, those in buggies and with sight or other mobility issues, to negotiate a route between garden walls and kerb-parked cars.

At Sandfield Road we are able to look across to the drive of Rainbow House, formerly the Family Centre, and the frontage of Magnet Kitchens.

The former Hobbs Garage comes into view at the end of Harlesden Road.  These days it belongs to Kwik Fit, of course. And we can just see part of the caretaker's house which was erected c1935 for the Central Girls' School, part of the roof of which can be spotted above the Kwik-Fit building.

An especially green south of Hatfield Road is apparent opposite Royal Road where the backdrop of Morrison's car park is Alban Way.  We are led to this view via the welcome tree lined recreation ground.

A hedge-line borders Woodstock Road south at Fleetville Nursery and Infants School and contrasts with the first of two views of Morrison's supermarket, which is probably a more pleasant streetscape than that of the former Thomas Smith printing works structure (also retained by Ballito Hosiery Mill).  Many would consider that building to have appeared more austere.

Finally, from way down Arthur Road we capture the glazed wall of  Morrison's cafe.  We are also deceived by the sight of a tree which looks as if it is growing on the corner site of the old Institute building, although it is a borrowed view; it is growing in the grounds of Morrison's, near the corner of Sutton Road.  We finish with a 1953 monochrome photograph showing the earlier view from Arthur Road across to the Ballito building.  We can colour it in our imagination as we prepare for our 1953 Coronation street party.

We can, of course, find views from the ends of almost every road in the city.  What connects the selection shown above is of course the busy Hatfield Road.

Photos courtesy St Albans Museums and Google Streetview.

Filling the Corners

 In the previous post I explored with you a Hatfield Road bungalow for which a planning application had recently been submitted for redevelopment as flats. The land on the south side of Hatfield Road had been released from agricultural use on part of Hill End Farm in 1920, and there was little delay before new houses lined the full distance from near Ashley Road, beyond Colney Heath Lane as far as the boundary of former Butterwick Farm where today's industrial landscape begins.

A reader recently identified a particular house near Colney Heath Lane he had been familiar with and therefore this corner will be the focus today.  Until the 1920s the nearest buildings were Oaklands Mansion and Winches farmhouse on the north side of Hatfield Road, the station building at the railway (shown at the foot of the map) and a small thatched building, called the Hut, just a short distance into Colney Heath Lane.  This building housed the toll keeper collecting payments from road users travelling along the lane towards the turnpike road, now Hatfield Road.  Otherwise, as the first map below shows a majority of this land was wooded.

Hatfield Road traverses the map from left to right; Colney Heath Lane branches southwards
to the right of Hut Wood – which referred to the former turnpike toll hut nearby.  The map is 
dated 1898.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Even as housing began in the early 1920s – this map is dated 1924 – woodland abounds. 
Houses can now be found in Hill End Lane at the bottom of the map, close to the little station
at Hill End where now is Alban Way.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Houses line the south side of Hatfield Road, as well as Colney Heath Lane in 1939.  The long
and irregular plots were later exploited for further infill housing.  The space in Colney Heath Lane
after the third house (green) was later used as the Gresford Close access.  Number 456
Hatfield Road, referred to in the text, is circled in red.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

When the building plots were divided up their lengths generally extended to the boundaries of other users in the hinterland, and between today's Longacres and Colney Heath Lane one large hinterland use was the clay pit which later grew to add kiln firing buildings taken over in the 1920s by the Owen Brickworks off Ashley Road.  By all accounts it was an untidy site and of irregular shape.  

The map which illustrates the plot lengths as they were in 1939 reveals an untidy arrangement with the occasional end wrapping around its neighbour, and a couple of landlocked plots with no apparent road access.  The first map to show completed houses on the approach towards Colney Heath Lane (the 1939 map) also shows one house, numbered 456, which does not line the road at all, but is set behind two pairs of semi-detached homes with much shorter rear gardens.  Number 456 therefore makes use of a particularly wide plot, but in order to give access to Hatfield Road a path was laid  between the front houses.  It is possible that one purchaser acquired and built all four front houses and the larger house set back (possibly for himself).  He may also have purchased rectangular plots with access to Colney Heath Lane for his later vehicular drive, but was unable to complete this project while one householder, of 470, refused to sell the bottom part of his garden.

Viewed looking southwards the Gresford Close estate utilises the space behind the earlier long
gardens on the south side of Hatfield Road.  Colney Heath Lane is on the extreme left.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

As we notice, the homes which were constructed at the same time round the corner in Colney Heath Lane also had rear gardens of various lengths, taking them as far as the brickworks site.  Both the Ashley Road and Hill End Brickworks had closed by 1939 since it was anticipated there would be little demand for the product during war time.  However, the irregularly shaped Hill End brickworks site was quickly identified for possible use by the fledgling Marconi Instruments Ltd, a spin-off company of Chelmsford's Marconi Wireless.  Thus the brickworks/Marconi site was preserved until the latter's closure by 1980, after which it was redeveloped as the Marconi estate within the same curtilage.

In the 1970s and 80s developers were earnestly searching for any small or medium sized blocks of potential building land, often using left-over corners from previous developments, lengths of housing with extended rear gardens (which enabled the houses in Pinewood Close) or where irregular boundaries had left pockets.  Existing individual houses were occasionally demolished where there was the opportunity to redevelop more densely – a process which continues to this day.

Gresford Close results from one of those opportunities in the 1970s, and it connects to the road network just where the owner of number 456 Hatfield Road had previously acquired his private driveway onto Colney Heath Lane (which had also been reserved for a future number 8). The name Gresford is derived from E Michael Gresford Jones, Bishop of St Albans between 1950 and 1970.

The space left for a number 8 Colney Heath Lane is now the access road for Gresford Close.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW.

Although I cannot verify the next statement I am certain that two existing Hatfield Road houses, 472 and 474, were demolished, possibly with the intention of enabling a Hatfield Road access in addition or instead, but the fact that such an access does not today exist it is presumed that planning consent for it was refused.  Instead four new homes, in pairs, were built instead (464, 464a, 462 and 462a).  The existing path leading to 456, the house which had been set back, can still be seen when walking along the road.

By shortening existing gardens and utilising corners it was possible to accommodate around 28 new homes as well as the access route and garage accommodation.   Of course, gardens are these days minuscule compared with those in pre-war dwellings.  

A similar approach to increasing the housing stock was adopted at Cedarwood Court and Pinewood Close; and together with the Marconi estates and infill space between Colney Heath Lane and the Butterwick industry a considerable amount of extra housing has been brought to the south side of Hatfield Road.

From Bungalow to Flats?

 We have previously observed, sometimes with concern, how housing densities within our district have gradually increased through time.  Extensions to homes do not, of course, inevitably mean additional members of a household, but they sometimes do, and as a result lower the square footage of garden space.  An additional car may be introduced and these vehicles end up on the roadside.  Small houses can therefore end up as large houses, long rear gardens may on occasions sprout an additional dwelling with a  narrow and sometimes awkward vehicular access; and older bungalows are replaced by a semi-detached home, two detached properties, or even a trio of connected town houses on three levels.

Not a particularly stunning map; but this is Hatfield Road in c1922.  The land to the south of
the road was part of Hill End Farm; on the north it was Beaumonts Farm.  The first plots to
be pegged out fall between two adjacent maps, but by 1922 there were already three houses
in build.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Focus now on Hatfield Road east of Beechwood Avenue.  We should tell the story of this road from the beginning.   North of the main road was Beaumonts Farm, not developed until c1930. Historically the south side was largely the boundary of Hill End Farm.  The farm was partially absorbed into the curtilage of Hill End Asylum in 1899 and the remainder of the farm acquired in 1915? even though all of the additional land would not be required for hospital purposes.  The residue was therefore sold for development in 1920, and this included land bordering Hatfield Road, westwards to the top of the rise before reaching Beaumont Avenue – at this point Beaumonts Farm crossed Hatfield Road towards Camp.

Plots were laid out and the first twelve to be released were westwards of the present Longacres, formerly a track leading to the Hill End Brickworks.  The plots varied in width, but all were very long – so long, in fact, that it was possible for a developer to acquire a significant portion of these back gardens in the 1960s in order to lay a new road, Pinewood Close, to access houses it built on its south side.

Originally the plots extended from Hatfield Road at the bottom of the picture to the extreme
top edge. Pinewood Close and a line of homes on the far side swallowed up nearly 50% of
the rear gardens.  The bungalow which is the subject of the planning applications has a
blue parasol in the back garden.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

Purchasers had the choice of home size and design, and all were detached or semi-detached two storey houses, or bungalows.  This typical mix was reflected in the initial tranche completed c1923.

Six homes subsequently replaced three 1920s properties. The bungalow which is the subject
of the planning application is to the right beyond the edge of the photo.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW.

Numbers 384, 386 and 388 were replaced by six new two storey homes.  The previous, number 382, is one of the original 1920s bungalows, partly hidden behind a substantial front boundary tree screen.  Readers might recall this property was the subject of previous planning applications. In 2018 there were to be one 4-bed flat and three 2-bed flats. A year later this was replaced by an application for eight 2-bed flats. The latter was refused but subsequently granted on appeal.  Of course, if granted this would not be the first flats along this part of Hatfield Road.  On the eastern side of Longacres is an extensive development between Cedarwood Drive and Hatfield Road, mainly on the former site of Hardy House.

The bungalow, first erected in 1923, had only two occupiers between then and 1975.  Note the
bus shelter and lamp post in front of the boundary wall.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW.

Having now gained appeal permission to build at 382, instead, the developer recently chose instead to submit a fresh application in which the number of floors increased to three, plus the dormer roof level and the previous semi-basement floor.  If the authority saw fit to refuse permission last time, presumably they would do so again, but who knows; the bill for appeals is born by the council!  

All of the comments submitted by nearby residents recently focus on the issue of parking and the consequent additional traffic flows.  Some of them relate to school traffic, but other respondents  wondered where cars would be parked on the site.  In the first application a total of six places would be provided.  No update was submitted for the current application, but noting the development would contain a total of eighteen bedrooms it would not be unreasonable to expect at least that number of vehicles, whether or not there were on-site marked-out spaces for them. 

A side elevation of the current application for alteration of the previous proposal. 
It extends from a sub-basement (lower ground floor), three further floors and a roof
floor.
COURTESY ST ALBANS DISTRICT COUNCIL

The site sits behind a lamp post and a bus shelter; would this make it the third occasion this bus shelter would be moved?  Or would vehicular access be restricted to Pinewood Close only?

Taken together, the three applications already the example suggests   that progressive attempts are made quite widely to shoehorn more development from existing plots and as a result lessen the open spaces available on them to keep the street scene buildings and their respective open spaces in proportion.  We would probably wish to protect this benefit, although what might we think if we were one of those residents who wish themselves to expand?

But then, we should acknowledge everyone need a home in which to live.