Hostelry which never was

The Hatfield Road buildings east of Harlesden Road, with the recreation ground east of the
treeline.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

The image at the top of the blog post on 14th August looking east from Sandfield Road, includes developments which took place east of Harlesden Road, but something seemed to be missing, partly because we think we are looking at the recreation ground in the distance; a point mentioned in that post.  In fact, it is future development land which we will come to shortly; the rec is out of sight in that photo.

By 1964, when this photo was taken, the corner grocery shop had become a bank.  The next shop, 
also a grocery has a house between them.  A short line of fir trees marks where a meeting house was
built.  Beyond is Fleetville's first shop parade.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

But first we will look at the orange block east of Harlesden Road.  There is a detached address which is a shop, on the corner, and a semi-detached pair but both parts now looking very different.  No doubt, when new the semi-detached pair with their little front gardens would have looked smart.  Edward Hanley owned the corner shop  – he also owned and ran a grocery on the south side of Hatfield Road near The Crown. This one at Harlesden Road was managed by James Harrison, baker and confectioner, followed by two more bakers in turn until resumption of peace after World War 1 when Teiji Orihash took over baking and added a grocery.  There are still former residents of the district who recall being taught to play the piano by Mrs Orihash at lessons given on a first floor grand piano.  There is some doubt whether or not Mr Orihash kept his shop open throughout the hostilities after 1939, although the 1942 Kelly's directory still lists the shop.  However, after the war, Mr Orihash thought it prudent to change his name to Hugh Orton in view of potential hostility towards his Japanese origin.  In the mid-fifties number 173 was transferred to Lloyds, the last of the big clearing banks to open in Fleetville.  They had a relatively short presence in Hatfield Road, until the mid-seventies, before the present traders, City Glass, took over, and created another example of additional premises built on the rear garden space.

A snowy scene in the 1930s centred on the house then being occupied by Charles Carter. The
grocery to the right was then under the management of H W Bennett.
COURTESY CAROLYN HAYWARD

The other two premises in the orange block were semi-detached homes until 1911 when the righthand house, number 177, was adapted to become a shop; H W Bennett's grocery, just two doors from the corner shop.  Walter Brooker took over from around 1948, but, as with many other small grocery traders, they suffered from the arrival of the supermarkets.  Brooker's therefore became a television aerials shop, and more recently the latest in trend purchases: vaping.

In the middle there remains one house. Although there have been several occupants, more is known about one of them during the 1930s. Thomas Carter, who had already established himself in the horticultural business, Sear & Carter, near St Paul's Church, encouraged his brother Charles, with an interest in agricultural machinery, to set up business in St Albans.  So, in the early 1930s Charles acquired the house at number 175 and a plot opposite on which he built Carter's Garage.  Later it would became Hobbs' Garage and is now Kwikfit.

Breweries are usually early to lay claim to land in development districts for future public houses.  In 1899 Benskins purchased the red and blue plots in the top picture for a public house, hostelry and carriage yard – presumably similar to The Crown, which was being constructed during the same year.  Directly opposite to Benskins' proposed establishment a competing company, Trust House, acquired a site for a hotel and accommodation for dining and drinking.  This launched a twenty-five year,  acrimonious battle between the two companies and many of the property owners in Fleetville which was only resolved when Benskins transferred its interest to the site on which the Rats' Castle was later built.  But there was no hotel.

In 1924 only the orange block buildings have
been developed. A small and larger plots acquired by
Benskins remain open during the lengthy objections
to the sale of alcohol in the district.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

The line of WW1 troops passing the shops, with the 
smaller open plot behind the leading soldiers.  We can also observe where the righthand former
house has been converted into the shop which one day will be known as Brooker's.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

Benskins land consisted of a small and large plot.  As soon as Benskins felt the opportunity of future trade on this site slipping away, the company was prepared to relinquish the smaller plot, which the Salvation Army purchased.  There are, of course, two possible reasons for this move.  Either the church group wished to construct a citadel, Sunday school or other meetings place, or it was a strategic purchase to squeeze out Benskins.  Well, the Sally Army didn't build, and when the opportunity arose the Mid Herts Bill-Posting Company rented both the small and large sites for advertising.  The small site remained as a poster site until around 1956 when the Plymouth Brethren group, which had previously occupied a small premises in Hedley Road, constructed a meeting house.  When it was no longer required for this purpose c2005 it was replaced by residential accommodation with the design containing echoes of the neighbouring frontages to the east.  Although there had been an option for a ground floor shop in the plan this did not materialise.

The Plymouth Brethren Meeting House built in the mid-fifties on the smaller plot formerly
owned by Benskins and subsequently acquired by the Salvation Army.
COURTESY ROBIN DE SMET

The same smaller plot more recently.  Long gone are the days when the land was used for
displaying large advertising posters.  Unfortunately a photo of that period has not yet been found.

Benskins finally relinquished the large plot (the blue block in the top picture) c1927, and this presented the opportunity for a shop parade of four establishments for the first time in Hatfield Road.  Set further back from the kerb the front elevations were typical of their time, with herringbone brickwork and first floor bay windows.  The original plan was apparently insufficient for the demand even at the time of opening, as the irregular space between the planned development and the boundary with the recreation ground a single floor shop unit was added.  Until the early fifties there were a variety of occupiers, but from 1956 Andrews greengrocery, was opened there.  In 2020 the same family is still trading here.

The five shops shown in 1964 with their frontages and before improvements to the roadway.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

When retail trading returned to normal after WW2 we should remember that the parade was still young.  In the period up to the mid 1970s the first shop was a confectioner (Dorothy Miles and then her son David Miles. Miss Gurney and then Mrs Wright, managed a ladies' hairdresser. In the third shop was Mr Macpherson, chemist, followed by St Albans' Scooters. A butchery run first by Hedley's and then J Johnson was in the fourth unit.  Andrews greengrocery was and is in the lock-up shop at the end.

However, today the former confectionery, has been converted into residential.  The front elevation, though modern, still respects the original design, although the herringbone brickwork was been lost.

This recent view illustrates the grey frontage of the former first shop now converted into
residential.
COURTESY GOOGLE STREETVIEW

In this series of posts we have found many examples of houses converted into shops as Hatfield Road became a true shopping street; in this post, however, we've drawn attention to a rare example of a shop being converted into a house. Next time, in a break from looking at the built Hatfield Road, we'll pause to provide an insight into the origin of the Recreation Ground, sometimes these days referred to as Fleetville Park.

Hedges remain

These are the premises described below, between 159 Hatfield Road and Harlesden Road corner, bounded by the red line.
COURTESY GOOGLE EARTH

The previous post, Squeezing One More In, demonstrated that the need to add more accommodation to the Fleetville streetscape is not a new concept and began early on.  The first properties to call on this time are 159 and 161 Hatfield Road.  As with so many addresses this building was a semi-detached pair, built by George Emerton, who also put up the Oak Villas (numbers 139 and 141) among other homes.  Both of the original tenants realised, as had others along the road, that there was commercial advantage in gaining permission to convert their homes into shops with flats above; Mr Bennett sold provisions, and Mr Guy was a milliner. They were both the first occupiers.  Below are two photos of this pair of former homes, the first taken in 2012, while the other is very recent.  Notice the difference?  In the back garden space accessed from the driveway between 157 and 159, a new house has been added – yet one more squeezed in!  Two long-term trades and tenants may be recalled by older residents.  Mr North managed a wet fish shop, while from the same shop space Mrs North sold fruit and veg. There were occasions in the 1950s when your author recalls walking home with one of the North  children, being invited to the flat above and being offered an item of fruit on the way. Even today number 159 is divided.  Next door was a chemist, run first by Mr Pike and then Mr Kine; today it is a charity shop.

This 2012 photo of 159 and 161, then Cartridge World and Oxfam, with the driveway between them 
and SK Carpets.  Compare it with the picture below, a 2019 closeup of the driveway with a
newly built house at the far end.

Moving on, below is an example of a pair of homes which remain residential addresses, even retaining their individual tiny front gardens.  Together with the shop numbered 167, all were owned by Frank Sear.  Mr Sear ran a dairy shop.  Built into the premises was a covered driveway to give rear access between the cottages and the shop.  The photograph below shows this drive with a wide door at the street end.  Today it has been converted into a narrow shop; a Thai Takeaway.  Even Mr Sear's former shop has a narrower frontage today to give independent access to a first floor flat.

A photo taken c1924 with three homes retaining their front gardens, and three shops; on the left was Henry Sear's dairy shop; centre right was Miss Moore's Dining Rooms, later to become Leslie
Townsend radio and bicycle shop; and extreme right is the corner boot and shoe shop.

In 2012 the centre shop is the former Henry Sear shop; the narrow shop to its left was the gated driveway to the rear.

The next property, number 169, was a side-by-side pebble-dashed detached building, having residential rooms on the left and shop on the right; the shop beginning life as a butchery run by Walter Aldridge.  However, for a few years prior to World War One, Miss Moore ran a cafe ("Dining Rooms"), and one of the two ladies standing at the shop doorway was undoubtedly Miss Moore, whose name hung on a horizontal boom flagpole, no doubt to attract attention.  From the 1920s and for the next 70 years or so it was known as Townsend's.  Useful for the early days of radio (and later television), Mr Warner and then Mr Leslie Townsend, sold components, and batteries, undertook repairs, charge up accumulators, and then widened the trade to include bicycles.  From an "alladin's cave" of a store room at the back many customers will have recalled absence from the shop for what was thought to be a long period until, finally, a spare part was located.

A 1970 shot of Mr Townsend's shop and the corner shop as a heating engineer.

A different view of Townsend's shop, now a charity shop, and the earlier boot shop and heating
engineer, now a beauty salon.

On the corner with Harlesden Road a shop with diagonal entrance was opened in 1903 for bookmaker H Copus & Son.  In fact, Horton's and then Samuels, also boot and shoe makers, repairers and retailers, continued to thrive on this corner until around 1970, when major improvements were encouraged in the heating of homes and other buildings.  T A Horn had an important local part to play in this trend.  Walk around to the side elevation in Harlesden Road we note some colour relief to the brickwork was achieved by introducing occasional lines of red bricks instead of stocks, a similar effect being used around the windows and doorway.  The former garden has also been used entirely for additional ground floor accommodation.  We should remind ourselves that, in laying out the plots at the turn of the twentieth century it was with the building of residential accommodation, not shops, in mind.  One of the original blue enamel street plates, fixed by the rural council to designate Harlesden Road in 1906, is still visible at first floor level.

In the event that some readers may be carrying out their own research into Hatfield Road developments and discover that the address numbers used here do not correspond with their own findings, the original numbers were allocated when there was still much undeveloped land and the Post Office resorted to guessing how many to reserve for future use.  It was not until 1930 that a revised numbering plan was prepared and activated the following year.

Next time we will discover the story of one of the politically most controversial events in Fleetville's early history.

Squeezing One More In

 Continuing our detailed virtual walk along Hatfield Road, and in some cases imagine we are early residents exploring the "mile of shops", last time we had reached Sandfield Road.  The next block now takes us as far as Harlesden Road, although there is sufficient material this time to proceed roughly halfway – twelve properties  would be too many for a single post!  However, the perfect photo to begin with is Andy Lawrence's newly acquired picture of what the photographer had termed "The Promenade".

A c1912 photo of the properties between Sandfield and Harlesden roads.  Sun blinds are
prominent, with Mr Gibbs showing a corner version to further highlight the location of his
shop.  Note the three first floor bays nearest Sandfield Road, one of which is missing in a
later picture below.
COURTESY ANDY LAWRENCE

Since we left Glenferrie Road we would have been, in an earlier time, at the hedge line looking into a field formerly known as Long Moody, and already, by 1902, the corner plots now have buildings on them. At Sandfield Road this was a fine shop owned by Samuel J Gibbs who aspired to furnish the tenants and owners of the homes then being built around him.  As a corner shop he was able to display two full windows, and as intended the Gibbs family lived above the shop.  But as he became more successful the shop began to expand upstairs.  Around 1910, Mr Gibbs therefore purchased number 4 Sandfield Road behind the shop – not far to travel to work! It was, in fact the only house, close to the Hatfield Road boundaries; otherwise land remained open until number 20, so what happened to number 2?  Well, on the 1922 map a house seems to have been constructed on the rear garden of number 4.  Perhaps an initiative of Mr Gibbs who felt he did not need a rear garden.  So, even in those early days of the district extra houses were already being squeezed in!

Mr Gibbs handed the business on to Henry Lewis, and by the mid thirties Mr Graham Henderson opened a "curios and oddments shop" here, before moving it along to the Laurel Road corner after the war.  The biggest change came with the re-forming of the Grimaldi business in the early days of peace, and its petrol and car maintenance business was augmented by a Rootes car sales showroom at number 149.  Yes, two band new cars could be displayed inside the shop.  Fleetville went into car sales!  For a while you could purchase refrigerators and freezers from here, before Barclays upgraded the premises and moved its bank from the Crown, which it clearly felt was advantageous for business.

Here is number 149 on the corner after the occupation of St Albans Refrigeration in the 1960s.
A pillar-style police call box stands on the pavement corner, and we are just a short time before
new-style road signs.  Every change of occupant, it seems, has brought a different side facade
on the Sandfield Road frontage.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

The arrival of Barclays Banks has also created modernised and smart external frontage.  For
the first time the building is without its first floor bay window.
COURTESY BARCLAYS ARCHIVE

The next pair of shops came four years later, but were undoubtedly built by the same company as the corner shop.  Today, however the cohesive design is lost as the first floor bay window was removed in the later conversion to bank premises. Although number 151 spent some decades in George Weatherhead's care as a china shop, and then Charles Chuter for outfitting, undoubtedly the most well-known owner began here during the Second War: Frederick W Hickie.  When petrol is in short supply people turn to their bikes; then radio continued its popularity and we became curious about the new television service, Mr Hickie and his son were happy to serve.  Since the mid-sixties insurance and legal services have ventured into the suburbs to demystify one of life's needs which had formerly been found in the side roads of the city centre, sometimes above shops.

Hickie's bicycle and radio/tv shop in the 1950s, with father and son at the doorway.
COURTESY THE HICKIE COLLECTION

The complete development as it looked in 2012.  Again, the first floor bay window and projecting
eaves are now absent.

Number 153 was one of the first shops to break away from from the notion of each trader having his or her own single shop.  Charles Chuter ran his outfitter's from two adjacent properties from the 1920s, thereby signalling that retailing often needs a variety of footprints to work in.  Soon after the war Westminster (later NatWest) moved to join other chains in serving Fleetville, and in recognition of its success, later moved to larger premises which we met last time on the west corner of Sandfield Road.

Number 157's first occupant was James Andrews who sold the comprehensive range of
accessories, fitments and finishings to homes the company had built.  This would later
become Percy Stone's newsagent's shop.
COURTESY (name temporarily mislaid – to follow shortly)

The next pair of shops was clearly intended for a specific purpose.  James Andrews owned a building business.  He had acquired land on the opposite side of Hatfield Road for his builders' yard.  The righthand shop was in the care of his wife for the sale of builders and finishers accessories – and no doubt became the firm's office.  To the left of the central vehicle arch a shop was available to let, which provided a regular rental income; a trade which, until the 1970s, served as one of Hatfield Road's regular and frequent grocery shops.  Peep through the arch next time you are passing and the service buildings to the rear are still in regular use by the present occupiers of both shops: SK Carpets.

James Andrew's shop was on the right, but he owned both shops with access to workshops
through the arch; the left shop was let to a succession of grocer's.

Number 157's longest owner was was also one who had three successive trading addresses and saw Fleetville's very birth. Percy Stone's first store was where the Rats' Castle is today.  He later moved to Bycullah Terrace, before moving again to 157. Although generally known as a newsagent's we would recognise its product range in any newsagent's we walk into today (except perhaps the lottery tickets). There are many former teenagers who will recall their daily roles as paper boys, propping their bikes against the wall under the arch before climbing the steps into the shop.

It is along this section of Hatfield Road where the feature of the ground floor front elevations follow the street line, while the first floors are turned to face due south.  Although the two shops at 155 and 157 are modest in floor area, space being reserved for the arch, the first floor accommodation over the arch provides some compensation.

Oak Villas and a greengrocery

Between 1900 and the First World War the pace of building development on the north side of Hatfield Road was brisk, and at any one time there would be some construction happening in all of the streets, and naturally many builders were interested in plots facing Hatfield Road.  In this collection of posts the focus is on houses and shops; we'll return later for the story of the churches.

The area bounded by the red box identifies the Hatfield Road buildings in this post.  The centre pair
are Oak Villas; the left pair are Emerton's shops; the right was Mr Hills' house; finally the two spare
plots between.
COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

In travelling eastwards from The Crown the focus is now on the site between Glenferrie and Sandfield roads. In 1899 George Emerton took a look and became interested in two plots right in the middle.  We don't know whether that was coincidental or whether there was some symmetry at work.  But the outlook across the road was towards the field east of the Cemetery, rather than the burial ground itself.

Oak Villas 1 and 2 with a more modern front garden wall which obscures part of the front bay
windows.

What resulted was a semi-detached pair of houses, solidly built, with doors adjoining, the usual minimum width front garden, and named Oak Villas 1 and 2.  So who lived in them?  According to the street directories George Emerton himself lived in number 1 until 1910, and various tenants in number 2.  The Valuation Office record indicates there were workshops (plural) behind number 1, as if he was using Oak Villa 1 as a base for his building work.  Sisters Olive and Lily Emerton moved into number 2 in 1938 and remained resident until c1973. Equally interesting, number 1 was occupied by P Osborne for a short time and then Henry Jagels.  Their story is followed up below. But in recent years both villas have been converted in a Mosque.

From left to right, the two shops, Oak Villas 1 and 2, and the remaining spare plot. The first shop
blind shades Mr Davies' Toys and Sports shop; finally the original Hills' house, converted into jewellery and later a wool shop.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

In the meantime, the Valuation Office reveals George Emerton also acquired two plots to the west of Oak Villas.  In c1910 Mr Emerton raised two shops on these plots, which became 135 and 137.  Several Fleetville residents recently noted building alterations taking place and a pair of former shop fascia signs were revealed from an earlier period. 

Until the end of WW1 number 135 apparently remained empty, and then Miss O Emerton managed a confectionery shop there, before being let to a tailoring business.  From 1960 it was home to general engineers and instrument makers and in recent times was the location of a Credit Union.  Number 137 had been a greengrocery from 1912 onwards, firstly by the Osborne brothers, and then by the Jagels family. Henry Jagels and his wife lived in Oak Villa 1, and their son Frederick came to take over the greengrocery from the Osborne brothers.  The upstairs flat was not adequate for a family and as they are believed to have raised three children, the family lived in a house at the Brampton Road end of Glenferrie Road.  The greengrocery was thought to have remained Osborne's, even though it was managed by the Jagel family for over twenty years.  This would might account for the fascia sign.

Recent renovations reveal the former fascia sign for the greengrocery under the management
of the Osborne Brothers
COURTESY PETER ELLIOT

Around two years after Mr Emerton's arrival a house was constructed on the west corner of Sandfield Road.  It was quite narrow and was acquired by Mr Henry Hills.  He was another Hatfield Road occupier who relished the benefit of turning his ground floor into a shop to advance his jewellery trade.  Subsequently it became a drapery and a house furnishing shop.  From 1949 Mr Davies moved in to supply the increasingly popular wool trade, and until 1956 two plots between this shop and Oak Villas remained unused, which is a long period for an otherwise busy district shopping street.  But in that year Mr and Mrs Davies created an extension to the original shop on the corner and opened the ground floor as St Albans Toys & Sports.

A surprisingly spacious Sandfield Road c1912.  On the right is the side-facing living
accommodation of the corner house of Henry Hills.  Unfortunately I have not yet been able
to located a photo of the house frontage or the first version of the shop. The original 1906 Rural
Council street plate can just be seen to the left of the the first floor drain pipe on the east corner.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

By 1975 the Davies's had handed the property over to Westminster Bank/ National Westminster Bank, which extended the building further to include the remaining spare plot.  The floor to ceiling window sections extended from the entrance on the left to the corner and then along Sandfield Road.  As with all other examples all other national banks had branches in Fleetville, and eventually all closed those branches.

This is how the building was remodelled for its role as National Westminster Bank, although all
references to the bank have since been removed.

Today, the ground floor has an unrelieved and bland office treatment, although it is possible to identify the westward spare plot, then the Davis extension shop and finally the original corner house.

Between bakery and dairy

In the previous post we met builder Herbert Skelton, who was also a developer.  He purchased the rights to build the four shops to the east of Blandford Road, with Jacob Reynolds' Blandford Road lying behind.  This was in 1912, over a decade since the first attempts to develop Hatfield Road as a residential street, only to discover that they were commercially better as shops.  Mr Skelton had built a portfolio of homes further east: two terraces which lay between the former J B Rollings house and his wholesale warehouse, and Glenferrie Road.  He got started on these much earlier, 1902, and managed to retain most of them as cottage homes for almost ten years.

The shops – and two homes between Clifton House (see previous post) and Glenferrie Road.

These are two almost identical terraces, with attractive boarded gable ends.  Their current condition reflects the difficulty of carrying out maintenance on this part of a building  The first terrace of four, 119 to 125, consisted of houses.  Indeed, two of them are still private residences, each with their narrow front walled gardens.  When first built all of the properties were homes with porched doorways and ground and first floor bay windows.  That would have been an impressive lineup for the first few years.  The photo below marks the major change in use.  

This image was created in 1911 from outside Clifton Road looking eastwards to Glenferrie
Road, along a still-narrow road.  Here is the bakery in the only year it was managed by William
Davies, followed by the two houses.  Shop blinds reveal the presence of newly-converted
shops.  No parking problems – bliss!
COURTESY HALS, FORMERLY ST ALBANS LIBRARIES

1911 is the first year in which most of the homes became shops, with the removal of the ground floor bays and installation of shop display windows and a door giving entrance to the shop and the existing front door retracted to become an internal access to the first floor from the shop.  They were narrow properties.  We know the photo was taken in 1911 because number 119 became a bakery, losing its little garden in the process, and it was run by Walter Davies.  He only remained for one year, the census year of 1911, and by the following year Mr Freeman Cornwell had taken over.  119 has always been a bakery; even in modern times when it became a pizza specialist.  The carriage house, an earlier form of garage, cart house or workshop lay along along the side entrance and was used for flour storage, although not for the first few year as Mr Skelton and his family were living there.  The workshop is still there at the far end of the sideway. Some present residents of the district will recall a fire at the shop which effectively put the bakery out of business for some time.  During the 1950s the author was fortunate in having the owner's elder son as a friend, and it was to the shop, his home, we gravitated to after school to mop up any stale buns Mr Schnabel was unlikely to sell before closing time.

The bakery shortly after the fire.

In the first terrace, number 125 at the other end, was another shop recalled by the author.  Although in its first few years it was John Schaper's hairdresser, the majority of its life was spent as a confectionery, managed by Mr O'Dietschi and then by Mrs Fowler.  Ice cream and pop were the young customer's regular requirement!  From the 1970s it became a charity shop and is now a small art gallery exhibiting on behalf of a small number of today's artists.

A traditional view of a confectioner's shop.  How could a child avoid
making regular visits to Fowler's!
COURTESY FLEETVILLE DIARIES

It is lovely to note the two intervening terrace homes between the two shops described above.

The first two shops in the second terrace, 127 and 129, also small homes to begin with, served Fleetville residents with a wider range of products: bookmaker, a bazaar, milliner, government surplus supplies and hobby stores – most of these are variations on a theme! Today it is a nail bar.  Next door today's popular Fleetville Kitchen cafe was preceded by cooked meats and carpets (but not at the same time!)

The final three shops:  Santino's which is now Fleetville Larder; an insurance business which is
now a firm of solicitors; and Cleveland Glass, which now seems to have moved online.

A shop trader well known in these parts between the 1950s and the early 70s was racing cyclist Stan Miles.  He took over from a children's outfitter, and his shop, clearly a converted living room with its fireplace still in position, attracted a large number of teenagers who aspired to own a new cycle they could hardly afford.  Above the fireplace hung the "cycle of the week" which was beyond our reach in more than one way. He later moved his trade to the south side of Victoria Street.

Glenferrie Stores managed by William Lupton between shortly before
WW1.  Could the bikes be fore the delivery boys?  Typically, two shop
windows crammed with inviting products to purchase.
COURTESY IAN TONKIN

We have now reached the next corner, the one with Glenferrie Road. This is where the two terraces differ.  At the right end of the second terrace, this was always going to be a better commercial location for a corner shop, and number 133 never was a house, opening as a grocer in 1903, and among its early tenants was William Lupton, grocer.  He began here in 1906, before moving to number 63 on the corer of Laurel Road until 1914 and closing in Fleetville permanently in 1916,  For much of its life it became Brown's Hedges Farm Dairy and Express Dairies.  Until recently it was also Cleveland Glass.

This is a good opportunity to mention that the property numbers are those in use today.  Until 1932 the numbering was mere guesswork as so many plots had not been developed.  Many of the early buildings erected as homes can still be found in the street directories with their house names.

The Skelton investment

In our exploration of the properties lining Hatfield Road eastwards from The Crown, Rumballs land agents had enabled Horace Slade to acquire Great Long Field (or Long Field East as it was also known).  The hedge separating Long Field from Long Field east met Hatfield Road just before the line of Blandford Road, so when Frank Sear first purchased the land for his nursery and its shop and house it was on the east side of the hedge and in Long Field East.  But Jacob Reynolds of Heath Farm expressed an interest in part of St Peter's Farm and purchased a strip of land on each side of Blandford Road.  He was clearly only interested in residential development,  not main road development.  His purchase had not included Sear's future Ninefields Nursery, nor had it approached the main road on the east side of Blandford Road.

An early plan of the land purchased by Joshua Reynolds.  The road names
have not yet been agreed, but the land is on either side of Blandford Road.

In stepped Mr H Skelton, a builder from Luton who purchased an interest facing Hatfield Road when development first began in 1899.  On this land he straightaway built two terraces of four houses each.  There will be a closer look at these in the next post.  For now, that land accounted for only half of the Hatfield Road frontage in his ownership.  From Blandford Road he was content to leave a sizeable plot vacant for a full ten years.  As for living close to the job, he, his wife, son and daughter, occupied four different properties, at least two of them – and maybe all of them – he had been responsible for building.

Mr Skelton's purchased land east of Blandford Road.  The first building, consisting of four purpose- built shops was not developed until c1910.  On the far right, the building beyond Asker's awning is where J B Rollings ran his wholesale confectioner's business.  The rectangular clock is fixed
to the first floor front elevation.
COURTESY ST ALBANS MUSEUMS

The ornate balustrading hides the view from the street of the second-floor windows, which are
nevertheless visible from the more distant view shown in the top picture of this pair.

In 1910 the design for a terrace of four at the plot-in-waiting at the Blandford Road end was agreed and proceeded with, and would certainly have made a greater impression than his earlier gable ends further along the road.  Those who only look down or ahead when walking along the road may not have noticed.  Neither is it obvious to many of us that this terrace is triple floored.  Above the ground floor, which was intended to open straight onto the pavement rather than via a slim six foot garden space, the first floor has residential squared profile bay windows and adjacent ancillary rooms with a flat window.  Except the corner property, which only has a longer bay window, which is angled; no flat window for another room.  The reason for this becomes clear when we look around the corner.  These appear to be more than tiny flats and all four extend some distance to the rear.  Number 109 has two windows overlooking Blandford Road, a benefit not available to the other three properties; it is therefore probable that the internal layout is different.

The third level attic room windows are mainly hidden behind an ornate stone balustrade with the roof drainage fed downwards from pipework below balustrade level.

Since 1922 number 109 has been a home of St Albans Co-operative Society grocery department.  The author only remembers it from the 1950s, when it was already self-service, except for the delicatessen counter. Home delivery, so popular once more, was also a feature back then; the customer handing in a notebook, with requirements ticked if supplied, and the assistant calculating the cost.  Even "subs" were taken into account if the exact product wasn't in stock.  Today it is still part of the Co-op as Funeral Care.

Next door at number 111 it took until 1938 for the Co-op to open its butchery, which previously had been an independent shoe shop and a gents outfitter.  The shop front was fairly impressive, with the lower facing panels having a black stone grained finish, and heavy glazed doors with shiny metal edgings.  When the Co-op opened its supermarket its little local shops closed.

The third Co-op shop in the row, number 113, was its greengrocery and then Society Dry Cleaners, but only from the early 1950s. Before then the sign above the door welcomed young people to the Carlton Club, while the fascia stated Bishop's Stores.  The shop attracted a number of young people and one of the activities which came out of these comings and goings was a very successful football club.  To this day, a detail page on the St Albans City Football Club's website carries photos of the teams of young people from the immediate post-war period.

A 1945 Carlton team pictured at Clarence Park
COURTESY THE GORDON JAMES COLLECTION

Number 115's first occupant was a trader which later became well known for its delicatessen shops in Victoria Street and Chequer Street, Saxby Bros, but by 1930 A Asker had taken over what had previously been a watchmaker's and then become Fleetville's pawnbroker's shop.  Today it is a cafe.

Mr Skelton's purchased land facing Hatfield Road between Blandford and Glenferrie roads is
boxed in orange. The properties in this post are numbers 109 to 115, and number 117.
MAP COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

And finally, in this post ...

Mr Skelton had a plot of land left between the 1910 development we have explored today and the two terraces of houses to the east and which we will find out more next time.  Around 1920, and because of the small amount of extra width he allowed a shop for Mr John  Blackmore to run a drapery business, with residential accommodation to the side rather than above or behind.  However, for whatever reason Mr Blackmore sold up within a couple of years in favour of a man well-known in Fleetville, Mr John Bradbury Rollings.  He was living in a small house in Brampton Road and in charge of a small wholesale business.  The urgent need to expand brought him to buy number 117, which he named Clifton House after the house he had previously owned in Finsbury.  As he did not need the attached house for residential purposes, this, along with the shop, became the new warehouse.  The top photo, taken in 1964, shows the property – it is the one with the rectangular clock attached to the frontage.  Compare it with the picture taken in 2012.  The right side which was the original shop received a significant change, both to the frontage and to the roofline.  In the 1960s, further expansion forced the company to move into a warehouse at the top of Camp Hill, number 117 eventually being the home of a popular computer accessories retailer called Beebug.

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We have seen a considerable range of traders moving into this growing party of the city, and either staying because they were successful, or moving on after a while to try their luck elsewhere or in the search for larger premises or more popular locations.  This week Saxby's, Rollings and the Co-op did just that.  Next time we'll see how Mr Skelton's terraces of homes fared.

 

Ninefields Nursery

We have nearly completed our exploration of Hatfield Road shops between The Crown and St Paul's Church.  There is one more to go, and the clue was probably spotted in the first photo of the previous post.  Today that shop is not there, and hasn't been there for sixty years.  If you walk along that part of Hatfield Road you will find instead St Paul's Place.

Frank Sear outside his shop, plants in pots above the fascia showing off his trade. The picket
fence and gate protecting the private house.  The houses in the background are those in
Clarence Road.

To start from the beginning, Frank and Elizabeth Sear moved to St Albans in 1899 and purchased a detached house in Hatfield Road. Because of his trade he did not simply need a house, but land on which he could continue as a nurseryman and florist.  The red outline in the map below (from 1924) indicated the extent of the site he acquired and that included the corner area on which St Paul's Church was later built, and the wedge shape between the rear gardens of Clarence and Blandford roads.  When the St Peter's Mission Church in Stanhope Road planned its next move it purchased its Blandford Road site from Frank Sear, not the developer Horace Slade.

The shop is circled; the red lines mark the boundary of the nursery.
MAP COURTESY NATIONAL LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND

Until the new Hatfield Road buildings went up it wasn't easy to state where you were, but there was a commonly used named for a group of fields between Sandpit Lane and Hatfield Road: Ninefields.  Frank Sear therefore chose that name for his nursery.

Post WW1 photo; the fascia now displays Sear & Carter; the wooden picket fence has now
been replaced by railings.
COURTESY MARK CARTER

It is not clear whether Sear commissioned the house or whether he purchased the finished building.  If the latter, it was the only detached house along the road.  In recent posts mention has been made of the narrow front gardens, but so far this is the only example of such a building with its front picket fence separating the garden space from the public footpath.

By 1910 Frank Sear was deeply embedded in his business, and had teamed up with Gere, a Monumental Mason who had a section of the plot to the left of the house.  Useful because Sear's was opposite the cemetery, and special floral arrangements could be created for the chapel and for wreaths.

In 1911 or 1912 Thomas and Ada Carter moved from Lincolnshire to St Albans.  Thomas was a nursery foreman, and he and Frank Sear created a business partnership and the nursery trade expanded as Sear & Carter.  Thomas was instrumental in searching out spare plots of land nearby, including The Dell in Sandpit Lane, which was used as a trial ground.

Ada and Thomas in 1934, showing the severity of Thomas' injury (corrected date)
COURTESY MARK CARTER

The Carter passion for cars on show outside of the shop.
COURTESY MARK CARTER

Because of the nature of his work Thomas managed to avoid volunteering or conscription until early in 1918, and he was not sent to the front until a matter of weeks before the armistice – unfortunately just in time to sustain serious injuries.  Thereafter, the people of Fleetville would be used to seeing him around as shown in the photo.  Thomas and his family continued to run the shop and nursery with its greenhouses until 1960 when St Albans Council put a claim on the property and compulsorily purchased it for the construction of flats and elderly persons accommodation via a new access road called St Paul's Place.

A 2012 photo of the former Ninefields Nursery and shop, now the accommodation at
St Paul's Place.

The business transferred to Smallford and continued under the existing name before being acquired by Notcutts Garden Centres.

So, sixty years have passed without Sear & Carter's shop and the Ninefields Nursery, a real family business.  In fact a business of two families.