Park Street and District Residents Association
It is through the generosity of certain people that these photographs appear on this page, and I would like to thank them very much indeed. Relevant credits appear by each photograph.
** Because of the number of images on this page, it may take some time for the pictures to appear on your screen. Please be patient! **
** Often, captions to these photos are quite vague - if you have any extra information on the buildings that feature, please contact me. **
TONY STEVENS/PARK STREET & FROGMORE
SOCIETY
This is a photograph of Watling Street taken, I would guess, in the early part of this century. Watling Street, better known as the A5, is a famous Roman road which runs from London to North Wales, via Park Street! On the left is The Swan public house, the sign of which shows it to be owned by Watford brewery Benskins. It is now owned by Fullers. The shop in the terrace on the right of the picture was probably a butcher's at the time (there is a close up picture of this on this page). Now it is an office.The bridge shown on the photograph is that for the Abbey Flyer train line which links St. Albans with Watford. The line still exists, the bridge sadly not. It was replaced with a rather less attractive green metal construction when the road was widened in the 1970's. At the same time the front gardens of the houses along the street (Station Terrace to the left of the picture, Park Street on the right hand side) had their front gardens compulsorarily purchased and replaced with concrete.
T. STEVENS/PARK STREET & FROGMORE
SOCIETY
This is also Watling Street (South of previous picture). Unfortunately this is not a very good quality picture, but some detail can still be seen. The Old Red Lion public house on the right was owned by the brewery Bass. The sign on the side reads "BASS & CO's PALE AND BURTON ALES ON DRAUGHT AND IN BOTTLE" The pub is now a "free house". The river running beneath the road is the ancient River Ver which, incidentally, was apparently large enough to take ships during Roman times.
TONY STEVENS /
PS & F SOCIETY
Remember the butcher's shop we spoke of in the first picture - here it is! There is little to say about this, except for the shop does still exist, but it contains an office for a financial company.
TONY STEVENS /
PARK STREET & FROGMORE SOCIETY
This is a fairly recent photograph of Park Mill. It is a very old building, but unfortunately no old photographs of it could be found. It stands on Watling Street and is a water mill, powered by the River Ver. The building has been used for a variety of purposes over the years - at the moment it is offices for a company called Mechanical Handling Control. To the left of the picture is the St. Stephen Parish war memorial, and to the right of the picture are two shops - a newsagents and an estate agents.
TONY STEVENS / PARK STREET & FROGMORE
SOCIETY
This is the Holy Trinity Church in Frogmore (on Watling Street). I am told that this was designed by the same architect responsible for St. Pancras Station in London. Park Street is home to one other church - the Baptists Church on Penn Road. This is a much newer, "prefab" style building.
TONY STEVENS / PS & F SOCIETY
Finally, we get away from Watling Street, with this very old house on Park Street Lane. It was previously owned by a Mrs. Schofield, but when she moved out alterations were made to the house and much of the large garden was sold off for development. (This picture was taken before the alterations.) The house is a listed building - one of I believe two on this road.
More photographs will appear soon on this page - there are some more modern day ones which I have yet to take, and some old ones of Orchard Drive during construction kindly donated by Mr. Les Bray. It should not be too long before these are here for you to see.