One Hundred On

 We are now one hundred years on from the year 1925, and an additional six years forward from the end of World War One. At that time the government had determined that, in addition to the need for substantial numbers of additional new and higher quality houses, the cornerstone of this promise was to provide sufficient homes for returning veterans – the policy known as "Homes for Heroes".  The City Council launched its first programme at Townsend, although many would have been disappointed by the lack of pace, no doubt cause by a lack of understanding by the complexity of logistics, legals and the need to follow government procedure.  

A group of the first completed and occupied Springfield homes as photographed for
the Herts Advertiser.
COURTESY THE HERTS ADVERTISER,

A street view of part of the Springfield development one hundred years on.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREET VIEW.

The second programme focused on Camp Road and Springfield Road, though, once again there were funding issues between the council and the government, resulting in late delivery of the Springfield programme which only broke ground during 1925.  The Hatfield Road/Beaumonts programme, slated for a section of the dormant farm, remained just an idea. While a few of the original Springfield homes were later demolished,  the remainder in their lifetimes have been upgraded to ensure improved heating, glazing and insulation.  Springfield is now reaching its centenary.

Our east end was dynamically growing and a mere twenty-five years old. As such its residents had to contend discovering routes through and around the developing districts of Camp and Fleetville; after all, no-one had thought of planning the layout of streets, homes and factories which gradually became added to what was already present  in a random and haphazard spread.  At times travellers needed to take risks, especially in negotiating  the barrier which was the Hatfield & St Albans Railway line.  

The former Hatfield & St Albans branch railway divided the eastern district in two, and even
today the sub-optimal road network between Camp and Fleetville reflects the early
difficulties of connecting the two districts.

On a summer evening in 1925 four men were apprehended and later appeared in court for trespassing on the railway as they had attempted to take a short cut from Campfields to the allotment field east of the Hatfield Road Cemetery (today the site of Fleetville Junior School).  To be clear, these were four Fleetville men and were walking from Camp to Fleetville, so it is likely this was their second act of trespass on the branch line, the first being their walk from their home patch in Fleetville to their destination somewhere in Camp – was it a social evening at the Camp public house, now long gone?  It had never been easy walking between these two communities: the Cinder Track (Ashley Road), Sutton Road or Camp Road.  A further road between Roland Street and Sandfield Road was much talked about but never materialised.

Homes at the Sandpit Lane end of Gurney Court Road ninety years after they were
laid out on part of the former Marshalswick House grounds.

Readers of the Herts Advertiser in 1925 took note of advertisements in the early Autumn of a new development at Marshals Wick.  Stimpson Lock & Vince had opened a sales branch in the centre of St Albans for the express purpose of marketing the homes then being built for sale  along new streets north of Sandpit Lane, in the expansive grounds of the newly demolished Marshalswick House, formerly the home of the Marten family.  The rather grand formal parkland was being converted into streets of upwards of five hundred detached and semi-detached homes for sale.  While Charmouth and Gurney Court roads proceeded  as intended, the original plan was modified further east.  In particular The Wick wooded area was not cut down as originally intended for yet more dwellings, other roads were fore-shortened and Hazel Grove was removed from the plan altogether.  In addition, the east-west spine road, Harptree Way, was left as today's stripling with no houses fronting either side.

No photograph has been found of the 1913 picture house at Fleetville.  It was a typical "tin
church" style and was already second hand when brought to Hatfield Road.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

1925's residents of Fleetville would have recalled the prospect of a cinema appearing remarkably quickly in 1913; they were even able to stand on the corner of Hatfield Road and Tess Road (later renamed Woodstock Road South) and see the structure for themselves. Admittedly it was modest in size, as were many similar moving picture halls at the time.  But the locals never had the opportunity to venture inside; a legal case brought to court forced the builder to take the structure down, having contravened the Cinematograph Act, and to pay court costs against the builder.

A proper cinema at last!  The Grand Palace post-war became The Gaumont, then became
Chequers when they stopped showing films and converted to bingo.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

However, a decade later Fleetville residents finally got their cinema – well, it was built as near to Fleetville as was possible!  Named The Grand Palace Cinema and fronting Stanhope Road this sizeable entertainment building with its own orchestra, live shows, and a mix of silent and sound films, brought the most modern of entertainments within reach of east end residents.  Such was the size of its audiences  one of the district's early marked pedestrian crossings was installed across Stanhope Road right outside the stylish portico doors.         

Four notable events of the time in 1925.  How distant they now feel; beyond personal memory and only known handed down by our grandparents – and through the pages of the archived local newspapers.