Old, new, old again…

 A little wander at the weekend from the old town, into the very early parts of the new town, and ending up in Newhall - didn’t feel tempted to take any more pics of that though! 

North Lodge was one of the old entry points to the Mark Hall Estate as I understand it - it can be found down at the bottom of town adjacent to the Netteswell Road walking and cycle track and the road end at Stackfield, and is well worth a look (check out the amazing chimneys) but be respectful as people do live there! 

From there I walked through Park Hill (taking note of the lovely Oddfellows Terrace) before turning left along Broadway Avenue - with its classic 1930’s semis lining the avenue each side it looked rather fine in the sunshine. A bit of a wiggle at the end brought me into Jocelyns- and an intriguing glimpse of a view… 

Sure enough, the thoughtful approach that was taken with the original build of the New Town was in evidence here as behind me was a low-rise flat block - even the first floor here must have amazing views (there is no ground floor flats as far as I could see with that being given over to garages and storage sheds)  and the top floor must be able to see for miles. The architect here also took the “view through” approach that we also see elsewhere (The Chantry, I think?) with this walkway underneath the flats…

You can see how it allows a view through to the houses and the hill below. The intention of these was to “frame” particular views, although this one is slightly off the mark perhaps with the houses in place! 

Via Station road and back in to the old town proper - and a couple of interesting plaques with something in common…

The first on the Victoria Hall Theatre, the second on the wall of the building it refers to - the link of course being the first and second World Wars. 

From there into one of my favourite streets in the town - Bury Road. Such a complete mosh mash of building styles - it really is worth a stroll if you’re not familiar with it. A couple of my favourites here (although the next time I walk along there I will probably choose two completely different favourites!) 

The red brick house doesn’t seem to have a name - fairly unusual for the larger properties along here - while the yellow brick terraces are called Kimberley Terrace (nearest the camera) and Colenso Terrace and are dated at 1900 and 1901 respectively.  I particularly like the thin metal railings round the front gardens - giving an impression of the “open fronts” which were such a feature of the New Town. Colenso Terrace also provides us with a further link to WW1 as sadly in early 1917 in the space of just a few weeks, the sons of both no 1 & no 4 were killed in action. First A E Seymour on February 17th, then Herbert Clements - on March 26th. 

Robyn

Past and present...

 

Source: Harlow.gov.U.K. 

Source: Round about Harlow 

The Stow was Harlow New Town’s first “Neighbourhood centre” - areas designed into the town plan to ensure that each neighbourhood had shops sufficient to suit a family’s needs for day to day living, a Pub, post office, chemist, library and a bank. There was also a Health Centre close by providing in most cases Doctors and Dentists services.  Serving the town’s first residential areas of Mark Hall North & South and Netteswell, initially it was the “town centre” for those moving in, but as the town began to increase in size focus switched to The High and Stone Cross. 

A look through the list of shops at The Stow soon after it was built reveals some familiar names - Boots the Chemist has been there since the early days, for example, as has Dorringtons Bakers. “Big names” of the time include Freeman, Hardy & Willis (footwear), Sketchley (dry cleaners) & W.H.Smith & Sons (newsagents). In 1964 The Stow had 3 different butchers, 2 greengrocers, 2 bakers and no fewer than 7 general grocers - just imagine that, these days! This is a time that predates people’s heavy reliance on supermarkets as we know them now of course - indeed the closest Harlow had at the time were the Co-Operative society stores - still in evidence in some of the other neighbourhood centres although long gone from The Stow.

Source: Information board within The Stow today

Originally the area was not pedestrianised as the photographs above show - perhaps strange considering that one of the main features of the town plan for The High was the complete lack of cars within the central area. 

Source: www.photozone72.org.uk 

Now, things look rather different. No cars, but instead trees and flower beds which oddly serve to make the space feel smaller than the 1950’s appearance above would suggest. Boots and Dorringtons remain, but we have no butchers, no greengrocers, no bank and a library which is open so rarely as to make it sadly impractical for use by many working locals.  Two convenience stores are used mainly for the odd items that people failed to pick up on their main shopping trips - with Aldi just around the corner being the prime location for many of those. 

I plan to return to some form of regular posting here - in the first instance with some more of these “past & present” posts recreating old photos with views taken from similar locations today, to show how much things have changed - or not. Please do pop back and check for new posts, and thank you for reading.