Absent Photo: Third Hand Chapel

 This week we'll remain in Hatfield Road and walk westwards towards the Bycullah Terrace shops, opposite Morrison's in Fleetville.  A most unusual story is about to be revealed – and for further pages on this topic see the links at the foot of this post.

OS map 1922.  The vacant land belonging to the printing works bordered in red; that leased for the
cinematograph bordered in orange – and is now the Post Office plot.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

On the western corner of the Woodstock Road South junction is the Post Office; that is where our story is centred. Before the First World War its name was Tess Road.  Apart from the then new Bycullah Terrace shops the nearest Hatfield Road buildings would have been at Harlesden Road to the west and the villas which were the subject of the previous post to the east; although the printing works owner had employee homes in nearby Royal Road and Arthur Road.  Hatfield Road did look strikingly empty in spite of the opening of the elementary school in 1908. I should confirm that the printing works, The Fleet Works, was the first business to set up hereabouts, and was located where Morrison's store is today.

An impresario, maybe of doubtful reputation, arrived in town, and took a lease on the corner plot from the owner of the printing works opposite.  He may, or may not, have erected a board announcing the imminent arrival of a new cinematograph building in keeping with the entertainment fashion of the day.  His name was Russell Edwards and was previously known to the courts for various financial irregularities.

Hatfield Road c1914.  Smith's printing works on the left; Bycullah Terrace shops on the right.
Arrowed is the vacant land just beyond the shops and where Russell Edwards chose to
assemble his cinematograph building, a former chapel or parish hall.

There arrived on the scene several cart loads of metal, timber and panels of corrugated iron.  They had been brought from the Midland (now City) Station where their rail journey from Colne in Lancashire (or Colne Valley, Yorkshire) had begun.  Local people had become used to quirky buildings and Meccano-type temporary structures before.  Tin churches were quite common. But what was this one? Difficult to work it out from the piles of assorted stuff on one corner of the site, although it apparently wasn't certain whether the stacks were fully on the correct site or partly overflowing onto the adjacent plot, which Edwards also chose to use without the owner's permission.

During the next few weeks a variable number of casual workmen turned up each day to assemble what today would be called a pre-used building.  In fact it wasn't even second-hand, but third-hand, and it appears that several assorted parts were missing.  The structure's last use was as a chapel or parish hall, so is that what the people of Fleetville were going to get?  If the workmen can be persuaded to remain at work – many had not been paid for some time –  the word on the street was they were being promised a cinematograph building.

This would have been the view of the building from Hatfield Road.  The projector box, far 
left, was thought not to have been part of the acquired kit and would have been added on
site, if there had been space without incursion on to the neighbouring plot. Tess Road
(now Woodstock Road south) is on the immediate right.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

The Council was offered a set of plans, as shown in the images below, and proposals for a building which the Council may not have been aware was already in build.  Unfortunately, the Council turned down the plans, because as Russell Edwards had been enterprisingly concocting his Fleetville project a new safety law, the Cinemas Act, was added to the statute books.  This specified how cinematograph buildings should be built, what facilities they should comprise and the standard of those facilities.  The new Fleeville cinematograph, it turns out, did not comply and was not likely to have been the comfortable exhibition building customers might have expected. 

The proposed plan for seating (green) supposedly for up to 450 customers.  There appears not to

be a specific place for payment to be made, although many early buildings ran on the fairground

principle with moneys collected outside.  Electricity had only arrived in St Albans in 1908 and it

would be some while before Fleetville would benefit.  The Engine Shed would have housed

a generator.

COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

There were other issues too.  One of Edwards' investors was lied to about the details of the project and suffered other financial problems. The purchased building was also too large for the plot, and instead of modifying the structure to fit, he instructed his workmen to "borrow" a part of the next plot, which unfortunately had not been fenced off.

There is no doubt, it was a basic building on a flat floor – even though the elevation drawing shows a sloped floor – and would not have been appropriate for use in winter.  There was one male urinal and no evidence of toilet facilities for female customers.  A tiny porch opened out onto the footpath of Hatfield Road.  If you were to visit the Post Office today, including the vet's premises next door, and then walk round the corner to the rear of the Post Office plot, that is where the promised 450 cinematograph viewers would have supposedly been accommodated on their chairs.  

The building never opened to the public; wasn't even finished. Edwards was taken to court for various financial irregularities and non-payments to creditors or his workmen.  Edwards was imprisoned, but meanwhile the court sitting required the building to be demolished, the component parts and the land sold to reimburse creditors.  So Fleetville residents never got to be entertained here.

Although the opportunity was very brief, did anyone grab a camera and record any part of the construction, particularly the nearest it reached to completion?  Or maybe even the workmen who were not paid but had to return home to their families to put meals on their tables.  Fortunately, we do have access to the plans and elevations, which are shown here, but unlike artists painting what is in front of them, can we be sure there were drawings of the original structure when it was in use at Colne?  Did W H G Hubbard, architect, make his drawings from measurements, from the building's original site, or from a company sales catalogue?

The cinematograph site remained cleared for sixteen years before the current building was
erected in 1930 for A Rankin Smith.

A photograph demonstrating how the building appeared in its street setting would be a rare example of any building work actually in progress in this new suburb, but such activity did not, it appears, excite anyone who owned a camera.  Following the cinematograph's  demolition it would be another sixteen years before another building would be brought to this corner plot; the store and post office of A Rankin Smith.

At this period just before the First World War there was an increase in the number of people who had taken an interest in photography, using their skills to sell copies of their negatives to the locals, or as artistic views of street scenes at events across a wider geographical landscape.  Perhaps, even during such a short construction period, one photographic image might have been taken.  But does it still exist?

Link to Fleetville Cinema on SAOEE website.

Link to blog post "Missed the Flicks": https://stalbansowneastend.blogspot.com/2020/09/missed-flicks.html

 

Absent Photo: Hatfield Road Villas

 This week the subject of our post is the site which is Queen's Court, the three-block estate of flats in Hatfield Road, Fleetville, and completed in 1952.  But what we are really interested in is what occupied the site before 1952.  As with all of the plots along this stretch of road it was released for development in 1899 as a consequence of the sale of the first tranche of Beaumonts Farm between Sandpit Lane and Hatfield Road.

The green rectangle is the amenity patch around which the three Queen's Court flats are wrapped
on the north side of Hatfield Road near the Beaumont/Beechwood avenues junction.
COURTESY OPEN SOURCE MAP CONTRIBUTORS

Five villas, mostly semi-detached and near the Beaumont Avenue corner, were up within five years, and they are still standing today.  On the site of Queen's Court were two substantial plots for detached villas which were erected in 1902 and 1905.  They were given the names Balgowan and Waratah, which suggests an Australian connection.  Balgowan's generous plot accommodated a tennis court. The story of these two buildings gives the impression of having individual owners rather than tenants.

Compared with the sizes of the villas nearer to Beaumont Avenue on the right, Waratah (blue)
and Balgowan (orange) were built on very generous plots.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

There appear to be two varying accounts of the villas' short lifespan and their eventual demolition, possibly around 1949.  In  searching for photographs I have discovered two, both in which one or the other is shown in poor part in the background of an image taken for a very different reason. Together these are inadequate in showing off the villas.  But first, the probable story. 

The distant view of Balgowan, behind the man walking in the road, is the only known photographic
image of the house.  The photograph was taken from the junction of Hatfield Road and Ashley
Road.  Note, in this early view there is no tree screen bordering the road.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

By contrast this 1930s image of Hatfield Road is looking towards Ashley Road and Beaumont Avenue
and would provide a much better view of the two villas if only they were not hidden behind the screen of trees beyond the lamp post.
COURTESY THE STAYLEY-HAINES COLLECTION

Balgowan was first occupied by Mr A E Jowatt, followed by retired Annie Purvis, her grandson Frederick who was employed in a merchant's office, and boarder Frank Webb, working on the railway and presumably at a local station since he was a clerk.  Balgowan had changed hands by 1922 and George H Williams moved in. 

Across at Waratah Miss E Purvis was the first occupant in 1906.  Was she a relative of Mrs Annie Purvis next door?  Anyhow, by 1907 Henry Williams had replaced her.  Was he related to George H Williams next door?

Waratah gives us the only reference to a family; Henry and Louisa Williams had five children: Norah, Hilda, Leonard, Florence and Henry junior.  Given that the nearest school, Fleetville Elementary, had only opened in 1908, the children were being educated in a very young building. The children's father was employed as a road contractor.

Waratah records its 1926 occupant as Sidney Ives.  By 1939 both villas were empty and had been taken over by the emergency National Fire Service with its temporary brick building to the left of Waratah, and there was plenty of land behind the villas for the parking of fire engines and for training purposes.  What our account now lacks is detail of the period between 1926 and 1939.

Mr Ives developed a building idea which included shops and flats on his own plot and vacant land to the left of him.  The Council refused permission as inappropriate development, since it failed to conform with the Town Planning Act for the zone the land was within.  It seems this frustrated Mr Ives, for the zone boundary came between his house and that of Mr Williams next door in Balgowan where the restrictions did not apply.  Mr Ives made repeated attempts to purchase Balgowan, perhaps to place the bulk of the development there.  The Herts Advertiser carried a detailed report in 1937. Mr Ives probably appeared surprised that his new more extensive plan which had been submitted under the name of Parkfield Developments  was again refused.   

The RAF flyover in 1946 captured the site of Waratah (blue) with the National Fire Service building
in its place, which is the broad white roofed block. Balgowan (yellow) has a number of small building
structures on its plot.  The five villas (green) are those remaining today.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

One suggestion reported in the press was that Ives might have  exerted pressure on his neighbour by beginning to demolish his own house (presumably he no longer lived there!).  But by then the plans for war were moving forward and under compulsory purchase arrangements the Auxiliary Fire Service/National Fire Service, which had taken over from the City Corporation's Fire Brigade, moved onto the site and the two homes were renamed NFS1 and NFS2.  The 1946 aerial photographs indicate that Waratah had indeed been demolished before the war began and NFS1 was the brick headquarters building shown as the large white block in that image. Whether they became offices or training exercise structures is not known.  Although not very clear Balgowan, along with a number of unidentified smaller structures were still in place.   A nearby resident's recollection stated a stray bomb had been dropped and damaged part of the site – no clear evidence though.  Anyhow, post-war was a different world and the City Council planning department acquired the site for – guess what – flats!

What a shame that such an unusual story has been poorly remembered and that the occupants of these two homes largely unknown.  Surely somewhere there is a photograph of Waratah and Balgowan, and perhaps the single-storeyed National Fire Service building next door (where Fleetville Library was later built, although that has now also been replaced).

Absent Photo: the Tin House

 In this blog research has been made challenging in locating a house, even though it was not demolished until 1938.  In fact, there was a second building which we will refer to later.

The Tin House, circled in red, faces the former footpath from the Marshalswick Lane/Beechwood
Avenue junction.  Today's Beechwood Avenue is the broken orange line.  Today's Woodland Drive
is the broken green line.  The remaining buildings of Beaumonts Farm are close to the farm
track from Beaumont Avenue, only just visible on the left of the map,  We know it as Farm Road and
Central Drive.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND 

The Tin House, sometimes referred to as the Iron House, is shown as occupied in the 1901, 1911 and 1921 census and continued to be lived in until the late 1930s.  It was brought to a little plot of land north of the farmyard of Beaumonts Farm; today the little house would be in the garden of 75 Woodland Drive but opening onto the footpath which Beechwood Avenue north is close to today.  The question of why such a building, a form of prefab, came to be in this location has not yet been proven.  However, the following provides a probable explanation.  Beaumonts Farm ceased to be managed by the farm's tenant in 1899.  From then on it became the responsibility of Oaklands Farm.  Beaumonts' fields continued to be utilised but lost the use of the farm homestead and any outbuildings.  Two portable structures were acquired; an early form of Nissan building, shown in the photograph below. and a family-sized single storey house also constructed out of metal.

The Nissan Hut between Beechwood Avenue and Woodland Drive and alongside Chestnut Drive.
Probably erected c1916 and in the 1940s used as a Sunday school outpost for St Paul's Church.
COURTESY SHEILA ARTISS

At the start of the First World War there was a requirement to farm the land more intensively, to replace imported foodstuffs which were in short supply.  Nissen buildings were cheap to purchase and easy to erect.  The chosen site was next to an existing track near Sandpit Lane; today it would have been between between Beechwood Avenue and Woodland Drive alongside Chestnut Drive.  In fact, its final function was the builder's yard of Tacchi & Burgess during the contract to construct the houses of Woodland Drive north and Chestnut Drive, after which c1960 it was demolished.  For a short period after the Second World War it served the growing estate as a Sunday school, an outpost of St Paul's Church.

This is NOT the Tin House described in the post, for we have no photograph of it; but is a representation of it from another location.  We know there were four rooms; the map shows a
very small external structure likely to be a toilet.

In 1901 the Tin House (Iron House) was occupied Edward Ashwell, his wife Eleanor and their daughter Sarah.  Edward was employed as a farm labourer.  In the 1911 census this role, or more specifically the cowman, was undertaken by Louis Bundy, with his wife Merrina and their four children.  By 1921 Charles Atkins, his wife Edith and five children lived here.  Mr Atkins began as a cowman on the farm, but by 1921 Mr Ivory of Townsend Farm rented one or more of the fields, and he employed Mr Atkins as a ploughman at the Beaumonts Farm. A resident of St Albans recalls seeing the tin house in the 1930s, describing its location as "in woods next to Beaumont Avenue".  This would have been shortly before the thickets were removed to create Beechwood Avenue north.  The resident knew the Tin House was occupied by the Atkins family because she was aware the children attended Fleetville School.  Charles Atkins and his wife Edith lived there with their five children.

This is the only known photograph of Beaumonts Farm homestead.  The track which became
Central Drive is across the bottom of the picture.  The road which became Woodland Drive north
will lead off to the left.

There is something else we know of the Tin House.  The tenant of the homestead, Edmund Coombe, ran a horse business there and in his retirement was an "assurances clerk".  His death occurred in 1931 and there followed an auction of his possessions.  Included in the inventory was a "corrugated iron four-roomed cottage".  We suppose it might not necessarily have belonged to Mr Coombe; it may well have been included in the auction as being no further use on the estate, then in the hands of Watford Land Limited.  The Tin House  was not sold and remained standing until 1938 when it and the farm  homestead were demolished by Arthur Welch who was about to start building houses in Woodland Drive.

So we know exactly where it was located, when it arrived and when it was demolished; also its shape and that it was constructed of corrugated iron.  According to map evidence the little building was approximately L-shaped.  Of course, we also know the names of three families who lived there during a period of almost forty years – including as many as ten children who all are likely to have attended Fleetville School.

A young group of children attending Fleetville School in 1914 when the building was no more
 than six years old – about the same age as these children.  Children living in the Tin House attended this school and one of them may even be in this group.
COURTESY FLEETVILLE INFANTS SCHOOL & NURSERY

It is probably reasonable to expect no photograph was taken of this little family home; it is only because a group photograph was taken in the late forties in front of the Nissan building that we are blessed with a partial image of the barn.  But there may be pictures out there somewhere.  For the Ashwell, Bundy and Ashwell families the discovery of such a photograph would make more complete their life stories in this part of St Albans.  And because we know the names of the children we can celebrate their lives here individually: 

Sarah Ashwell; Martina Bundy; Dorothy Bundy; Winifred Bundy, Ellen Bundy; Violet Bundy; Nellie Atkins; Louise Atkins; Charles Atkins; Arthur Atkins; William Atkins.