Part 28, Homes for the elderly
The Princess |
The Hemel Hempstead Development Corporation was facing an unexpectedly large demand for bungalows and flats from the elderly relatives of young families who had moved out from London to become new town pioneers.
The corporation had provided homes for 60, but had 150 more people on its waiting list and action to meet the demand was to be taken.
Meeting another new demand - interest in the arrival on the scene of commercial television - was causing problems in the town.
The council was concerned that a rash of new aerials to receive the new ITV station would make the town look unsightly, but on the other hand the development corporation agreed that their tenants could put up aerials.
Eventually, in September of 1955 the council decided to give the OK. But by then it was feared it would be too late for many residents to tune in to the opening broadcasts. Local TV dealers said they were being inundated with requests and wouldn’t be able to cope. Mr Thomson of Pyle and Thomson in the town said they were putting up aerials at the rate of eight a day.
By the spring of the following year the “growing web of unsightly aerials” was causing great concern and plans were drawn up to establish a Rediffusion service in Hemel Hempstead. A master aerial would supply pictures to homes via an underground cable.
The system went ahead and served a large number of homes in the town for many years.
From the little screen to the big screen and in January 1956 Cinemascope - 3D without glasses - came to Hemel Hempstead. Costly alterations were made to the Princess Cinema to provide a screen which was 21ft wide and 16ft high. The first Cinemascope picture to be shown was Three Coins In The Fountain and the manager of the Princess was Mr G. W. Miller who had been the projectionist when the first ‘talkie’ film was shown!
There was nothing new about residents’ liking a glass of beer, but the influx of new townies required new pubs and to meet the demand in the Chaulden area Chesham and Brackley Breweries built their first new pub since the war - the Anchor in Beechfield Road. It opened on September 8, 1955 and replaced the old Anchor pub nearby, which was later demolished.
THE year of 1956 began with the opening of the new bus terminal in the town centre - replacing the temporary one which itself had replaced the old established one in Bury Road.
The opening revived the protests from old town traders that the new town was killing their businesses, fears explored in previous chapters of New Town Years.
The political wind of change was continuing to blow through the town and 1954 saw Labour take control of the council for the first time and Alderman Gilbert Hitchcock was elected as the town’s first Labour Mayor.
It was also in 1956 that the chairman of the development corporation, Henry Wells said that the new town was now entering its “final chapter.”
Almost 5,000 houses had been built, another 2,000 were under construction and as the new town plan had envisaged the construction of 11,000 houses in all it could be seen that the last stages of building were in sight.
Mr Wells also talked of the development of the town centre and how plans were being prepared for the east side of Marlowes and added: “It should not be long before a new cinema to seat 1,500 people is constructed on the corner of Combe Street and Marlowes.
Just six months later, though, that all seemed to be in doubt as it was revealed that the government’s latest credit squeeze was affecting the provision of amenities in the town.
Although there was a site for the cinema, no date could be given for a start on it and things did not look too good for the proposed £100,000 social centre on the opposite corner. This existed only on paper and would include a coffee bar, terraced cafe, a hall to seat 1,000 and would also include an art gallery, museum and would link to a new library.
The plans had been drawn up by a team under the development corporation’s chief architect, H. Kellett Ablett.
A development corporation spokesman said: “We have not lost hope of achieving this valuable and ambitious project, but the present national situation is not at the moment auspicious for ventures of this kind.”
Commercial interests carried on, however, and work did start on redeveloping the east side of Marlowes that summer.
It meant the end for one of the town’s oldest businesses - the stationers and newsagents owned by 85-year-old Mrs L. Vinney.
She wanted to carry on and had been in business for 59 years since she married Mr Alfred Vinney, but sadly the shop was to be demolished.
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