Hills and Ill-Fitting Junctions

 I have previously illustrated in this blog that we can identify the levels of that part of Hatfield Road between The Crown and Loreto College can be dated specifically to the 1860s.  For readers who are unfamiliar with this section of road a cyclist beginning a journey at The Crown would be engaged in a steady climb to the railway bridge on the Midland Main Line Railway.  The cyclist would then, assuming the Lemsford Road traffic lights are in her/his favour, be able to freewheel some distance until the climb resumes outside the former College of Further Education – this, incidentally, is the foot of the St Albans hill along the main entry road.

The view from The Crown to the Hatfield Road Bridge.  Before the 1860s this road would have
been approximately level.  On the left ahead, Granville Road was one of the few roads
constructed to form a level junction with Hatfield Road.
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From the recreation area of Clarence Park the view shows the height of Hatfield Road above
park level opposite the Station Way junction.

Walking or riding was much more straightforward, of course, before the railway arrived because the bridge only arrived in the 1860s.  Whenever we visit Clarence Park we observe the enormous amount of spoil required to build up the road level – the road originally being at the same level as the park.

A similar remoulding of Victoria Street (then named Victoria Road for most of its length) was undertaken for the purpose of "vaulting" over the Victoria Street Bridge, before reaching the foot of St Albans hill near Lattimore Road.

Close to the bridge the relatively newly constructed Station Way has been graded back from
Hatfield Road from the much steeper gradient when it formed the station goods yards.
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It may not look very steep, but for a bicycle without gears and waiting for a green light the effort
would have been – and still is – considerable.
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Pre-world war two buses used Beaconsfield Road to negotiate an awkward junction, especially
for under-powered vehicles, to make their way into the former station forecourt.
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The Alma Road/Victoria Street junction could be just as challenging as Hatfield Road for
cyclists, although Alma Road lacked traffic signals until the 1970s.
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Two inclines in one: first from Alma Road to the middle of the junction, and then the climb to
the brow of the bridge. To the left lay the bed of a former stream – the same stream which
lay below London Road close to the the current Odyssey Cinema.
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...and looking down from nearer the top of Victoria Street Bridge, the buses referred to
stopped just to the right of the present car park sign.  The camber (the difference between
the road height in the middle and that at the kerb) was more extreme before the surface was
relaid, causing stopped buses to noticeably towards the side of the public house.
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Buses also advanced over the bridge and turned into the station forecourt on occasions – 
another exciting part of the route for upper deck passengers!
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Cyclists, however, have also been irritated by the same road improvements when using roads such as Alma Road, Beaconsfield Road and Lemsford Road. Hint: cycles with sophisticate gearing were far less common.  It would be another two or three decades after the bridges arrived before housing development took place in New Town (between the St Albans hill and the railway line), so the employees who created the slopes approaching and leaving the bridges had no need to blend the gradients into the side roads, because, of course, they weren't yet there, still having a useful life as productive fields.

Before the end of Lemsford Road was remodelled the junction was much narrower, being
the width of the higher lane seen today.  Again a more challenging turn for an earlier single
gear bicycle.
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Hatfield Road: on the left is Loreto College; on the right the former Further Education College.
The St Albans hill begins as we approach Lattimore Road.
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Victoria Street at the Lattimore Road junction.  The St Albans hill begins beyond this
junction.

When houses began to grow along Alma, Beaconsfield and Lemsford roads little attention was given to road building, especially at Sandpit Lane, Hatfield Road and Victoria Street.  Although a modest amount of tinkering has been attempted at the Sandpit Lane/Lemsford Road junction, cycling from the former to the latter has always been a challenge – as has cycling from Beaconsfield to Lemsford Road, with the additional effort required to complete the procedure from a standing start, before the traffic signals jitter towards giving preference to Hatfield Road traffic instead, or a motor vehicle turns right from Lemsford to Hatfield Road across your path.

The circumstances are almost identical for cyclists on their way from Alma Road to Beaconsfield Road, or, even more challenging,  intending to turn right from Alma Road launching into the climb to the even steeper Victoria Street Bridge.

Not a problem today, but when the railway station was on the other side of the bridge and of Victoria Street – and when Stanhope Road was tree-lined, the early buses stopped using the latter road and, instead, used Hatfield Road and turned left into Beaconsfield Road, many of them turning in the station forecourt before proceeding into St Albans centre.  Before the Second World War buses had less powerful engines and less sophisticated gearing than today, so driving these vehicles to negotiate such changes of gradient demanded extra skill from their drivers.

Even double deckers approaching the bridge from a decapitated (i.e. felled) Stanhope Road would provide top deck passengers with an uneasy sensation at the bus stop just before Alma Road.  Not only was the road gradient still steep from the top of the bridge, but rather strangely, the road camber gave travellers the feeling they were about to be tipped sideway out of their windows, or that the bus would itself inevitably tip across the pavement into the hotel back yard!  The stopping place has of course been removed, passengers now leaving or boarding their services outside the new station building.

We certainly have been left with awkward junction gradients as a result of the railway passing through the city.