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).