The Rec in 1946

 Just when you think you know a place well, along comes a fresh element about which you had no previous knowledge.  Or almost no knowledge; but more of that shortly.

The map below covers the same area as this 1946 aerial photograph taken by the RAF.  
Hatfield Road crosses the bottom of the picture. Fleetville Recreation Ground (Fleetville
Park is left centre with Fleetville School to its right.  In the top section roughly west to east is
Burnham Road and lower Brampton Road.
COURTESY HISTORIC ENGLAND

In the previous post you will be aware of a series of RAF aerial photographs taken in 1946 and now available to view on the Historic England website.  In that post we explored The Park.  This week I've chosen to home in on part of the very heart of Fleetville: the Recreation Ground, Fleetville Infants School, and Royal, Woodstock, Burnham and Hatfield roads.  The aim is to contrast today's  topography with that of 1946.  In so doing we have to manage an image of high contrast created by the bright sunshine and deep long shadows on the day of the flyover.

The map covers the same area as the aerial photo.
COURTESY OPEN STREET MAP CONTRIBUTORS

The very recognisable range of pitched roofs of Fleetville School, which were two distinct buildings in 1946, with a playground space between the junior and infant departments, is now, one joined structure and also enlarged at the northern end (the old Boys entrance of elementary school days).  The wooden Hut, consisting of two classrooms, arrived in 1938 is now replaced by a large modern hall on the Woodstock Road South side, and the long narrow structure further north along the same boundary were the outside toilets.  Although these have now gone the high boundary wall still exists as a kicking wall.  The space south of the former Hut consisted of a garden for the adjacent police station and house (shown as car park P on the map) just behind the Post Office.

Fleetville School (Infant School today) with the wall on the right.  Behind this was once the outside toilets.

Turning our attention to the Recreation Ground (Fleetville Park on the map), a temporary building had been constructed just behind Royal Road in 1942.  It was a day nursery for the young children of employees at the munitions works in Hatfield Road (Fleetville Community Centre and Morrisons on the map). The bright fresh concrete slab on which the building was placed shone out in 1946. Just visible on the Royal Road side of the building was where the embankment down to road level had been partly cut away with a concrete ramp leading down to underground tunnel shelters; the building had been placed on top of the tunnels cut in 1938 and 1939. The ramps have now been levelled to create the present car park in front of the community centre.

The rear elevation of the Community Centre

Wartime street shelters constructed in the roadway.  This example is from Manchester.
COURTESY MANCHESTER LIBRARIES

This leads us to a recollection given to me a few years ago; a resident recalled when he was a child that "a few" street shelters were constructed in the roadway of Royal Road.  I searched in vain for confirmation but found none – until now, for the RAF photo taken in October 1946 clearly shows six structures on the footpath and half of the roadway outside the nursery building.  They must have been demolished and removed in 1948 for I do not remember them.

Residents wishing to see the (temporary) community centre building will need to be quick; it is expected the building will be demolished in July of this year, in preparation for a new building to go up in its place.

An emergency water tank similar to, but much smaller than the one, on Fleetville Recreation
Ground.  This example is from Aston, Birmingham.
COURTESY BIRMINGHAM CITY ARCHIVES

The rectangular structure near the Hatfield Road boundary was an emergency water storage tank for the National Fire Service, clearly emptied for safety, next to which was the ARP hut.  Here is this week's question: halfway along the diagonal footpath between Hatfield Road and Royal Road is a circular shape.  Although I can identify the children's swings to the right of it, was there a revolving ride, such as a roundabout or witches' hat?  I remember neither of those, only the swings.  Anyone with further information please contact. 

On the south side of Hatfield Road, far from straight, near the southern edge of the photo are the long parallel roofs of the former Fleet Works, the Smith's Printing factory, by 1946 being used as Ballito hosiery mill.  Immediately to its left is a narrow grey-looking site with seasoning sheds to the left, which today is part of the surface parking for Morrison's.  But in 1946 was a busy timber yard owned by the Lavers family.  Recognisable by its shape is the outline of the former Central School, now Fleetville Junior School, today little altered from its original form.

The timber yard of W H Lavers, Hatfield Road, now under the car park of Wm Morrison's 
supermarket.  The site was a busy one both for building companies, general contractors and
homeowners.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

The north-south road to the west of the Recreation Ground is Harlesden Road, one of the many
parallel roads which helped to swell the population of Fleetville from the early 20th
century.  This is Harlesden Road, from the Hatfield Road end, taken around 1914.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

Many photos of Bycullah Terrace are taken from the western end.  So, just for a change
here is a picture taken from the Sutton Road corner about ten years ago.

Back on the north side of Hatfield Road is the eastern end of the Slade building estate of the early 20th century; the compact terraces and semis of Harlesden, Burnham, Brampton and Woodstock roads, and the two long terraces of Arthur Road.  It is disappointing the deep shadows cast by the Ballito factory hide all of the detail of the most interesting section of Hatfield Road at Bycullah Terrace – Fleetville Shops. 

If you live, or your family lived, anywhere on this photo you will pick it out immediately.  Fleetville was, and still is, a busy suburb of the city.  Until the previous year, 1945, it still hummed with the young voices of children who had become honorary guests of St Albans, having been evacuated here from London boroughs and the Sussex coast.  Let's remind ourselves: this was seventy four years ago.

A Better Entrance

This week we pause to consider a few of the issues which come about when a site is purchased and a note on a planning map: "future school", or in the case of Hatfield Road "future schools".

Whether primary or secondary there was a huge difference between what was provided in an educational building. In today's terms the facilities to be found in the pre 1902 Board schools or the later elementary establishments can be considered very basic , where even effective winter heating might be absent.  The County Council, on its formation, became responsible for building and maintaining schools where they were needed.  In the early years after formation in 1889 the Council engaged an architect for each individual school, but in the 20th century it set up an increasingly sophisticated architect department to develop standards common to groups of schools; and these standards developed and improved with time.

The Rural School Board were responsible for creating a school for the widely-spread child
population in surrounding hamlets.

So, using just a few select examples, what did we discover from actual experience?

You would have thought a mains water supply was a basic requirement, but Camp Elementary School was opened without a water supply extended this far from the nearest supply; and in Sandridge senior boys were detailed to carry water buckets from the village pump when required.

In 1908 (Fleetville Elementary School) lavatories were strictly outside at the far end of the playground; and the playground surface was gritted.

When the land was purchased for senior education in Fleetville the space was deemed sufficient for one boys' and one girls' school.  Ten years later when the girls Central School was built only one school could be accommodated.

The County Architect Department developed a building style with interchangeable components
This style of building is widely distributed across the county.  Staff at Beaumont Boys' School
in 1959.

By 1938 when the two senior schools were required even more urgently, Beaumont got its pupils in one building, girls upstairs and boys on the ground floor, with the absolute minimum of sharing!  Playing field space, according to the government, was required to be even greater.  The site reserved for a girls' grammar school in Brampton Road was instead used for a boys' school, while new housing hemmed the school in on all sides.  The regulations required more playing field acreage for boys than for girls; which is why the pupils of the Boys' Grammar School (now Verulam) have, since 1938, walked to their remote site in Sandpit Lane, and continue to do so.

A hall was multi-purpose in the early days, with a requirement to divide into two classrooms, even in the 1920s (London Colney).  It must also double up as a gymnasium in 1930 (Central).  Even Beaumont (1938) was in build when the next advance came, and a separate gymnasium with changing rooms became a new requirement.  This facility was also added to Central later.

When Beaumonts Girls' and Boys' Schools were designed a gymnasium what not required 
separate from the hall.  This new requirement was added as the schools were nearing completion.
Changing rooms were included.  When more modern sports hall facilities were later built the 
gymnasium was converted into a library centre.

From 1930 a platform suitable for drama was added to the hall at Central, and at Townsend an adjacent room was included for teaching and changing purposes, and by 1938 (Beaumont) two small classrooms were added for changing rooms.  Similar improvements were made for staff facilities and administration.  And considering many school still closed at lunchtimes down to the 1920s, catering facilities weren't added until post-war with many schools being supplied from central kitchens elsewhere in the city.

A detached house was included when required for the caretaker and his/her family.  This is at the Fleetville Juniors site, formerly Central, Girls' Grammar, Beaumont Girls, Sandfield; all names
applied to schools occupying the Hatfield Road school site since 1931.  The house no longer
serves its original function.

When schools might be built further away from the urban area and where caretakers need to be close at hand, the authority either acquired a nearby house or had one built in a part of the site.  This added provision was in place by the mid 1930s (Central – detached house), Marshalswick  (bungalow in 1959) and St Albans College (flat in 1959).

The main entrances to schools were also given a more prominent statement where possible.  Central was added in 1937 when the caretaker's house was built.  The need for parking, visitors, staff and other vehicular pressures often limited the possibilities, and Beaumont was only significantly improved within the last two or three years.

Camp and Fleetville schools have had to squeeze more onto their fixed plots even, in Camp's case the removal of a former head teacher's house, and in both cases removal of part of the schools' infrastructure onto new sites (Fleetville Juniors across the road onto Central,  overcrowding of Camp to form Windermere, and overcrowding of Fleetville to form Fleetville Extension School, renamed Oakwood).

Missed the Flicks

 Not only were there no houses on what later became the recreation ground, but there were few homes built on the T E Smith land  between Royal Road and Tess Road (now Woodstock Road south) either.  A row of  six small homes appeared in Royal Road, and one detached and two adjacent semi-detached houses on the west side of Tess Road.

1922 OS map showing the school and (circled in blue)
the police station and police houses.

1922 OS map showing the Hatfield Road block outlined in red.
MAPS ABOVE COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

This was the point, in 1906, when the County authority concluded it needed to take decisive action in providing services for this extensive series of private residential estates, and with more to come; open spaces, education facilities and the Police Constabulary were definitely not part of the brief of house builders.  The County moved its police station into the first house in Tess Road with the Sergeant and Constable living next door.   In the 1970s all three buildings were demolished to provide land for parking and a children's nursery.  The largest land acquisition came to provide – at last – land for an elementary school; this came following pressure from countless parents who had to send their children "over to the Camp School".

Royal Road to the left; Woodstock Road (Tess Road) to the right. The little car park and the
building beyond are the site of the former police station and police houses.

The 1922 OS maps (top images) show a broad band of vacant land adjacent to Hatfield Road, and it remained in that state until c1930 when another service lacking in Fleetville was finally provided: more adequate medical support.  While there was a doctor and a dentist at The Crown end, it was not until shortly after 1930 when Dr Smythe built a detached house and surgery at the corner of Royal Road.  It still sports the original name of Fleet House, and it was distinctive in possessing a corner front garden.  Although it sits snugly into the Hatfield Road streetscape it actually belongs to Royal Road. Fleet House was later converted into a pair of flats and the original rear garden plot was then used for a small detached house, 2B Royal Road.

Fleet House to the left and the parade beyond in 1964.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

Post-conversion view of Fleet House with added access to ground floor flat.

However, Dr Smythe was beaten into second place by the arrival of John Smith, stationer and draper who previously ran the third shop in Bycullah Terrace, which also had a corner devoted to a Post Office.   It had been a busy shop and Mr Smith sought more space for his trading. Purchasing the corner plot at Tess Road he engaged the building partnership of Goodwin & Hart to create what everyone still knows as the Fleetville Post Office.  The original garden plot faced Hatfield Road, but an extension to the Post Office and drapery was constructed on the garden c1960.  This is now the separate business of MediVet. 

The Post Office still with its rear garden and name fascia A Rankin Smith in 1964.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

The shops c1960.  The extension being constructed in the garden of The Post Office.
COURTESY JACKIE ALDRIDGE

The trend in the 1930s for a single building combining several shops, and also identified in a recent post, was continued here where three standard width units and a pair of half-sized units were built.  First to open was Percy Hall's hairdresser departments for both women and men.  Mr Hall had previously opened his first salon nearby in Bycullah Terrace and had others around Fleetville at different times.

Recent view of the shop which began as Harpers Motors and later St Albans' Scooters.

When Norman Harper first opened his Motor Sales showroom as late as 1939 the legal documents reveal this block of land had still been in the ownership of the estate of Thomas E Smith from the former printing works opposite.  Although now a phone repair shop the street elevation still has the original bracket arm for frontage lighting; street lighting in the 1930s was still quite poor.

The two half shops began as London Central Meats and a studio photographer.  After the Second War they were Baxter's Butchers and Garrard Fruiterers; and along the sideway to the right was a signwriter's business for S T Broad.

The Post Office with shops beyond.  This is where building activity took place in 1912 to create
Fleetville's cinema. This is the orange block outlined on the second map above, and occupied
a wider plot than had been paid for, according to the court report in the Herts Advertiser.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW

A plan and front (Hatfield Road) elevation drawing of the cinema.  Not a single showing
took place, and no sooner was the building up than, by court order, it was taken down.
COURTESY HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHIVES & LOCAL STUDIES

So, where do the flicks come in?  Well, the building came – and went – so quickly that not a single performance took place. Russell Edwards living in Granville Road claimed to be a showman, and saw a business opportunity which wasn't entirely legal and put up a secondhand tin building as a picture house/cinema.  Without using his own funds this serial mischief maker assured an investor that the cinema was already open and operating profitably and attracting patrons in numbers which, in fact, could not possibly have been accommodated.  In fact it was just a pile of tin and iron lying on the ground and the men engaged to erect it were sometimes not paid.  Creditors caused Edwards to be taken to court – again, and the court ordered that the building, so close to opening, should be taken apart and sold to defray court costs.  When did this occur? In 1912, so becoming the first occupier of this block. And where was it?  It all happened on the plot which is still Fleetville Post Office today.  

Sorry you missed the show!

Next time we'll trace the story of the most well known Hatfield Road trading quarter, Bycullah Terrace, and discover the origin of its name.

Long School Trip

A recent (2019) front page item on the website under the heading Decade News 1940, refers to schools which evacuated to St Albans from south coast towns in 1940.  While this was a significant event in itself and lasted for two years, we must not lose sight of the initial 1939 evacuation of schools from London whose official return did not take place until the war's end in 1945.  Given the distance in time from these evacuations we are in danger of losing what memory of the experiences still remains.

A letter of thanks and appreciation appeared in the Herts Advertiser in 1945 from the head teacher of Princess Road School, London.  As there were five schools with the same name in different parts of the capital it was necessary to identify the correct establishment.  The school which came to our city was Princess Road School, Camden, now renamed Primrose Hill Primary School.  There were some 300 junior children and the same number of infants.  It is not yet known whether both departments came, but we know that the school was paired with Fleetville School, which of course then only occupied the Royal Road building and its recently acquired huts.  Would there have been sufficient space for 600 children, if the hall was used for two classes?

Princess Road School, now renamed Primrose Hill Primary School, Camden.

Fleetville's own children attended school in the mornings, while Princess Road used the buildings in the afternoons.  Lest we imagine that this straightforward arrangement lasted uninterrupted for six years we must take into account a number of varied factors, including parents choosing to have children returned to London at any time they chose, children transferring to a senior school when they reached eleven, parents moving to a different town when allocated to new jobs; so the situation was fluid.  London County Council's own records are therefore scratchy.

A group of children – the adults are possibly their teachers – walking from
the station on arrival.  It is not known which school they were part of.
HERTS ADVERTISER.

Princess Road was also given access to the hall at St Paul's Church, presumably only for the mornings where their less formal education and other activities took place.  It was, at least, a base out of the rain and snow in winter.  That part of Blandford Road outside the church was cordoned off to form a temporary playground each day.

We know from occasional reports in the Herts Advertiser that the children ranged far and wide around the city visiting places of interest – and at least one letter home mentions a history study of the Romans at Verulamium.  Of course!

Princess Road School shared the accommodation at Fleetville School
for up to six years – afternoons only!

All of these children were billeted with families around the district, and it is presumed most stayed in homes in and around the Fleetville district.  Hosts would have taken responsibility for their evacuees during the weekend. So for up to six years the child population of our East End probably doubled.  On the positive side that's twice as many friendships which might have developed, and it would be good to think some of those friendships continued, at least by letter, after the return to Camden.

Today, we know that Primrose Hill Primary is interested in its own history, because it has a history page on its website.  So it is possible the school will wish to add a little extra paragraph about the extended school trip their children experienced between 1939 and 1945.

In the next post we will discover what happened to another Camden school, Haverstock Hill, when it was evacuated to St Albans.

Engaging With Our Locality

Whenever families, individuals, classes at school and visitors to the district, are able to share in some of the history of their home district, the experience is always positive.  More than that, what we discover is quite joyous.

Heritage Open Days have proved the point once more, although other casual meetings throughout the year have a similar effect.  September and October is also the period of time in the school curriculum when children explore their home patch, both the school itself and the shops and homes, where we and our friends live and what we can buy at the shops.  It is therefore a delight to meet the children as they find out how the school day was conducted, how children behaved and the playground games they may have played fifty or a hundred years ago.

Fleetville School playground in the 1930s.

Throughout the year members of Fleetville Diaries carry out deeper explorations in the form of projects.  St Albans had been the home of Frederick Sander and his renowned orchid nurseries in Camp Road, and this formed the basis of a major project last year.  Its culmination was to share our findings in a glorious celebration with members of the Sander and Moon families today (Henry Moon turned Sander's orchids into exquisite watercolours).

This year the organisation has taken Beaumont Avenue as its next subject in the series Right Up Our Street; and to focus on the former hosiery mill, Ballito, which grew on the site now occupied by Morrison's, where thousands of local men and women came to work, both in peacetime and war.  Although largely based on recollections it has been important to understand how the factory came to Fleetville in the first place.

Heritage Open Day on Saturday 14th September was an appropriate occasion to bring people together, to view three exhibitions and chat with the project leaders, to do so in a building (Fleetville Community Centre) first erected in 1942 as a nursery for the young children of women encouraged to work at the Ballito works that had been turned over to making shell casings for the war effort.

Factory managers' houses in Woodstock Road south

It comes as a surprise to many that competitive circumstances dictated the original Fleet Ville did not realise its full potential and which may otherwise have become a good deal larger.  The fact that it did not enabled one of this city's major benefactors, Charles Woollam, to acquire the field left over for the recreation and enjoyment of the people of Fleetville in the form of the Rec, or as many people refer to it these days, Fleetville Park.

Summer view of The Alley.

We then take a short guided walk around early roads; are amazed that Fleetville had a unique cinema – where no-one was fortunate in watching a film there; stood on the spot where several WW2 spies were charged, discover the homes built for the factory employees in one road and those built for its managers in another; and the function of The Alley which most Fleetville folk claim never to have walked along.  There are parts of Fleetville, too, which are more ancient than the Cathedral, and a stream to cross without getting our feet wet!

People love to ask questions and are often amazed by the answers; almost always a conversation ensues.  We are all part of a community and feel a personal responsibility to learn more about it.  And it matters not whether you are a 9-year-old who has already made sense of where he lives, or an adult who has lived here for three times as long and come to realise it's no longer sufficient to take local history for granted.

One way or another we all yearn to become more involved.

That Was the Year 2018

This line-up dates from c1954, when these children were surprised to meet Father Christmas along Hatfield Road (between Sandfield and Harlesden roads).  For further details see the foot of this post.

Was 2018 broadly the same as 2017?  Or will this year become a landmark year for you, your family, your street, or the district as a whole?  You must answer for the first three, but perhaps it is possible to pick out a small selection of changes which may or may not affect a wider number of people who live in the east end.  Whether they will ultimately improve our lives or just prove to be another irritation will depend on our personal point of view.

We'll begin with the construction launch of two significant housing developments: Kingsbury Gardens, formerly Beaumont School's front field (which, incidentally, had always been intended for houses under the Beaumont estates original 1929 plans); and Oaklands Grange, Sandpit Lane.  It is inevitable that their first residents will enjoy their first Christmas at home in 2019.  We'll try and remember to welcome them.

After noting progressive deterioration over a number of years the new access structure to Clarence Park's Hatfield Road entrance has been completed, and while not exactly originally as planned, it is  sturdy and very welcome.

Among the public houses no longer trading had been The Baton.  Former customers have since, presumably found other landlords to drink with, and after an uncertain phase M&S Food finally opened on the site and appears to be well patronised.  It is the second retailer to have crossed to the other side of The Ridgeway.

The residents' parking scheme for the 'Ladder Roads' in Fleetville finally launched recently.  Unsurprisingly, it has proved controversial, but it has made more obvious those commuters who have for a long time parked their cars in the scheme area or even beyond it and walked the last part of their journey to the station.  Parking and traffic in general will never have real solutions in Fleetville because the Real Solutions will never be accepted, by the Council, by the residents, probably by anyone.  But we will re-visit the scheme in six months.  And no doubt we will continue to grumble about the parking problems ten years from now!

Very quietly, improvements continue to be made to that green lung, Alban Way.  Undergrowth and a number of trees have been cut back.  A number of complainants have this year noticed re-growth and more open flanks to the path, new surfaces and signage, and helpful interpretation panels.  It is proposed these improvements will continue towards Hatfield.

The Green Ring, the Fleetville section of which has been open for a while now, was finally complete close to the end of the year.  Thus  far the voices in the ether have been rather quiet on any benefits, and so it is not possible to discover yet how useful residents have found it to be.  Cue comments by users.

November was also the 110th anniversary of the opening of Fleetville School, although it will be another four years before the specialist accommodation for infant children was opened for them. Anyway, happy birthday Fleetville School.

Right out on the edge of the parish the landmark and Listed Comet Hotel is shrouded behind solid fencing as the establishment faces its long-awaited upgrade, and we look forward to its re-opening.

Visitors to Highfield Park have discovered a new Visitor Centre which was opened in the summer; new extensions to its orchards and other park improvements have taken place.

We have benefited from short distances of new road surface, and most areas now sport new LED street lighting instead of those orange sodium fitments.  We have also learned (or not) to slow to 20mph while passing through Fleetville in our car – though at times some are struggling to reach that speed!  Meanwhile we continue to hold the record identified in the 1920s, of being a pot-holed suburb.

Which brings me to a couple of finishing questions.  How far down Marshalswick Lane do you now have to queue to reach the Five Ways (William IV) traffic lights at 5pm?  How many new traders to Hatfield Road and The Quadrant have we been able to welcome to our patch during 2018?

The image added to the top of this post is of course very seasonal, and it was taken around 1954 in Hatfield Road.  We know some, but not all of the children Ian, Shiela and Bruce Scotland on the right, Diana Devereux in the middle, and Father Christmas, of course.  The four children on the left have not yet been identified, and, more interestingly, what links all of these children to an event which took place just before Christmas in Hatfield Road?  We would love to discover.  Over to you.  Happy Christmas.