History - The Edwardians and Beyond

So, in 1895, we approach the twentieth century and a new age – goodbye Victoria, welcome Edward. Radlett had a church, a station and about 300 inhabitants, mostly farm workers, with some railway workers. Land, at least farming land, was no longer the profitable asset it used to be and changes in the Death Duty laws were having an effect on inheritances. Two of the people who owned most of the land in and around Radlett were looking for ways to provide an income (and probably to cover Death Duties) and they started to lay out their estates for development. 

At that time, before new roads were built, Radlett had two main thoroughfares – Watling Street which ran substantially along the same line now as it did then, although in 1900 it was a lot narrower – and the road from Shenley to Watford, then as now a narrowish country lane.

Other internal roads were; New Road which connected the Watford road to Letchmore Heath. (This road, known for a time as The Grove was laid out by the Commissioners for the Aldenham Enclosure in 1801/2) Loom Lane, an extremely old road alongside which the remains of a Roman kiln were found when it was being developed, connected Watling Street with Letchmore Heath and Aldenham. Gills Hill Lane - known until 1930 as Gills Hill and appeared on maps of the 1600s - connected the Watford road with Loom Lane and Malt Lane was a short cut from Watling Street to the Watford road when approaching from the north. Malt Lane still exists, between Watling Street and Newlands Avenue, although traffic use it at their own risk.

So that was the layout of Radlett before the building explosion. Bobby Phillimore owned most of the land between New Road, Loom Lane, Watford Road and Watling Street, and Charles Part owned most of the land north of Shenley Hill and Watford Road. The only area not to be laid out for development at that time was the Newberries estate, most of which remained in private hands until the late 1930s.

Bobby Phillimore was an unusual man. He came from a wealthy family - his father was Sir Walter, later Lord Phillimore. He built houses for his estate workers and for the men working on the construction of his new houses. He provided a large workshop where they could each have a work area and keep the tools of their trade. He also built houses for rent, large and small. He occasionally made a generous gesture but more often than not land or property which came into public ownership was as a result of negotiated sale rather than gift. Fortunately for Radlett, he sold off many plots of land rather than build houses and as a result, our roads have an interesting variety of styles, preventing that “estate” look of houses built by only one or two developers which blights so many developments.

Charles Part appreciated the benefits of the Co-operative movement. In 1884 he built the first shop in Radlett, on the site of the present Barclays Bank, and provided an area for a Men’s Club above the shop. He then laid out an area to the north of the shop as a Recreation Ground for the people of Radlett.

In 1897 he gave land to the parish, on the corner of Watling Street and Malt Lane (now a synagogue), for the construction of a Village Hall. 

Also in 1897 he provided money for the construction of a Water Fountain in the Recreation Ground as a memorial to Queen Victoria’s Diamond jubilee, together with swings and a see-saw. A few years later, following establishment of a Parish Council and after legislation allowing the newly formed parish councils to own property, he gifted the land to Aldenham Parish Council. The land is still owned by the Parish Council and is known as Radlett Gardens.

Charles Part had two separate parts to his estate – land on the Shenley Hill side of Watling Street known as Radlett Park and another estate, part of the former Newlands Farm, on the Western side of Watling Street, bounded by Watford Road. On his Radlett Park estate he, too, laid out roads. He also seemed to have decided not to allow the local authorities to take over maintenance of the roads. Hence, the former Radlett Park consists mainly of large and very large houses on medium to large plots with roads that are still maintained at the expense of the property owners. Although houses were built along Watling Street and at The Grove, the Newlands estate was not laid out until later and development was slower, being interrupted by World War Two before completion.

Development of the Newberries estate started in the mid 1930s when Robert Miller, the owner, sold the estate to Sir Arthur du Cros, who laid out Williams Way, Craigweil Avenue and Newberries Avenue. In order to assist the sales, he also laid out a five-hole golf course, with the Mansion as the Club House. A dozen or so properties were built but then World War II intervened. Du Cros promptly sold the mansion to an insurance company but it was soon requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence, along with Aldenham Lodge, for secret purposes which only became known 50 years after the end of the war.

© Philip Eastburn