May 2009 (5.1MB pdf) - The Hitchin Society

THE HITCHIN SOCIETY
NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2009
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A new face in Bridge Street, April 26 , 2009
Hitchin’s Civic Society since 1962
… campaigning for the best of the past; the best for the future
www.hitchinsociety.org.uk
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Editorial
It has been a spectacular six months since the last issue, and surprises have come from all directions.
The abandonment of the proposed changes in the flight paths above us has given way to a re-think; an
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additional runway, further to pollute the residents, is on the way for Heathrow – perhaps not .
Proposals are under consideration for a Really Fast Railway Line to the north. Nearer home the
proposed railway fly-over at the Hitchin Junction has been aired again as a viaduct, which will bring
less visual impact than the earlier thoughts, and not prevent a new road to the industrial area.
Nearer home still have come the proposals to move the Museum collections to the Town Hall. Past
experience suggests this might significantly reduce museum visitor numbers, if only because the
Museum and Library together attract more people than each alone.
Hitchin’s BID election has been successful, with a good turnout of 48% and a majority of 70% for both
the numerical and rateable value votes. This is good news for the town: already the condition of the
market has improved under its new management, with March showing the best numbers for years over
its three Saturdays. Tuesday trading is improving slowly, and Sundays are extremely busy, with
licensed traders wanting to trade then. BIDS money will be spent on the agreed propositions: Hitchin
money spent on Hitchin issues. Brent Smith notes “I have been critical of NHDC over certain matters,
but they have been brilliant over the BID. They have supported us throughout the process, voted ‘yes’
on all their properties and are collecting the payments without cost to us. They now have the only two
BID areas in Hertfordshire in their District – I think that they should get credit for this.” Both BID
organisations in North Herts are running the markets in their towns, with significant improvements in
both.
The re-surfacing of Paynes Park and the re-modelling of Old Park Road have been completed; it is
understood from a recent communication from the Highways Engineer that the southern end of
Bedford Road will be re-surfaced later this financial year. It’s not clear yet whether the traffic speed in
Old Park Road has reduced, but the new lane arrangements at the north end do confuse many drivers
who formerly used the right-hand lane to go straight on. The attempt to reduce the risk to Paynes Park
traffic from those crossing from Nuns Close to the Arcade car park has suffered from the Law of
Unintended Consequences: blocking the left hand lane in Nuns Close means traffic (which still
undertakes this route) now has to turn left out of Nuns Close and drive against the flow before turning
right into the car park.
Work on the former Brookers’ site seems to have come to a standstill, with the bulk of the site
screened in plastic sheeting. This may be a consequence of the credit crunch, workers reduced in
number to save costs and concentrate on other parts of the site, or perhaps some more local difficulty.
Certainly the roof is on the main block, but the lower block, seen from the Paynes Park Pelican
crossing, is little advanced from the cover of the last edition of this newsletter.
Lastly, there’s the proposal for Luton Borough Council to develop land in the Putteridgebury / Lilley
area of Hertfordshire. There are strong views on this side of the border, right up to the top of the
County Council, but this may be a hard battle to win. It may be, however, that the Credit Crunch will
buy us some breathing space: money for such large projects will be hard to come by for some while
yet.
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“Business can do without a third runway”, The Times, May 4 2009, p25
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Hitchin shops & shopping
One of the extraordinary features of Bancroft is that we all take it for what it is today, a street full of
shops and offices. Its history is a microcosm of Hitchin from its earliest days, an evolving time-capsule
for the whole of the town.
Nineteenth-century photographs which show the street in its entirety are rare. The photographer was
much more interested in showing groups of people or processes than townscape, so townscape is
often a background rather than the focal point. The earliest useful photograph is as late as 1893,
showing sheep in stalls outside The Croft, by today’s bus stop.
Photograph courtesy of Hitchin Museum
The most obvious feature is perhaps the enormous space taken up by the cattle market, which extends
almost as far as the eye can see. As the original negative of this photograph was a huge 10 x 8 inches,
the detail it records is similar in scale: if we peer in, we can see that the animal stalls stop around the
junction with Hermitage Road. At this time very few of the buildings were shops: just off the picture to
the right was a butcher’s shop, with its meat
hanging outside on hooks, to the delight of
flies and bacteria alike.
Until the First World War, the only shops in
Bancroft were at the far south end,
southwards from Portmill Lane down into the
High Street. Indeed, the west side of
Bancroft still had a private house into the
1960s, with the Croft itself.
The Croft ca 1950.
Photo courtesy Hitchin Museum
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Today that concept is almost anathema and
we take the shops totally for granted.
Twenty-eight shops closed in the town?
That’s impossible – that’s what the town is
for! To contain shops!
But perhaps that’s not as true as we’d like. Perhaps we might return to a more inclusive society, with
people rather less segregated - for segregated they are, by income if by nothing else, as to where they
live. In the 1850s when there were only a few shops in Bancroft, the wealthy lived in the house on the
street, and the far less wealthy in the yard around the back. What might cause us to return to those
bad old days? Today, many of us are wired up to all sorts of other people. It’s easy to order goods from
just about anywhere – food from a grocer’s shop, entertainment on CD, DVD or even download,
without leaving the house at all. I, and many others, can work from home, accessing the same files at
home as I would in the office. Why should I travel?
Suppose that were to continue. What would Hitchin look like then? There would be less need for
transport, but we are all so attached to our cars that it would probably take a very significant, sudden
hike in fuel costs for us to lay them aside, so perhaps they’d all stay parked. But if we can all shop from
home, there would be overall fewer cars on the roads, and more grocers’ lorries to deliver the goods.
Perhaps we’d all walk more – no, surely not. But what about the shops? If the supermarkets have
become hyper-megamarkets, what need is there for a High Street at all? Catalogue-shopping – Argos
and the like – is part of the way there. How attached are we to the physical reality of High-street
goods? Do we need to see, hold and feel an apricot before we buy it? If people are happy to buy
entertainment on-line as a download with no tangible goods changing hands, why should we need to
see the apricot before it arrives, if we have confidence in the supplier?
We are social animals, though: that’s why there are still cinemas where people go to watch a film
together. People like to eat together, to drink and interact socially, so perhaps from being a town of
only 18* restaurants, we shall become a town of 50 … perhaps we’ll go back to having one pub for
every 50 inhabitants … With former industrial buildings re-packaged as desirable apartments in
London, and in Hitchin too with the re-development of the former printing works in Bucklersbury as
apartments, many of the High Street and Bancroft shops could find new life as blocks of apartments.
And what would the High Street look like then?
*This was a first guess, and is not the right answer. How many restaurants are there in Hitchin, not
counting take-aways, bars & coffee-bars?
Bancroft /High Street
Regent Cottage
Café Rouge
Prezzo
Ali Baba
Sirchai
Doughty’s
Raffaele’s
Bridge Street
Bistro
Just Desserts
Bucklersbury
Bar Meze
Blue Mango
Hermitage Road
Raj Douth
Thai in Herm Rd
Marketplace
Bar Amigo
Walsworth Road
Khushma Cottage
Starlings Bridge
Paprika
Best Kebab
Sun Street
Four-Leaf Clover
La bella vita
Just32
Pizza Express
Sitar 2
Strada
Sun Spice
Zizzi
Apologies to any organisation which I may have missed or mis-categorised.
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Hitchin Marketplace, February 6 , 2009
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Planning Issues
Conservation Area Review
The Society’s Committee had been disturbed that the Rose Cottage, Walsworth Road development
had taken place without any consideration of the status of the building as part of the overall street
scene, and this could set a dangerous precedent for other Victorian buildings in the town. The Society
therefore pressed the Council to undertake a Conservation Area Review to define the status of
Victorian buildings not otherwise listed or codified. This request was dismissed initially, but a review is
now taking place over the period March-June 09. Members of our committee attended a review
meeting with consultants at the end of March to put the Society’s views. Public consultation will take
place in August, and a final report will be made to NHDC Cabinet in September 2009.
The Corn Exchange
The Society had written to the Council on several occasions about the new signage on the Corn
Exchange, and an acceptable sign was installed in December.
Arriva Bus Garage, Fishponds Road
This application has still not been decided.
Churchgate
There has been no action on discussion between the Working Party and Hammersmatch. It is now 6
months since the grant of Planning Permission and there has been no start to works on the ground:
permission had been conditional on a start within 18 months, but the leaseholders fear that after them
spending £2 million on refurbishment, a Compulsory Purchase Order could be used if a larger
redevelopment is agreed.
Crest Nicholson & Simons procurement programme is said to be on schedule for August. The duration
of the Credit Crunch may determine the outcome.
The Society considers that a grandiose development is of no benefit to the town, and carries many
risks – not the least being a long period of disturbance to existing businesses. We therefore support a
refurbishment of Churchgate.
Paynes Park, “Brookers” site
There had been an application to insert an electricity substation, after the approval of the original
design. It was curious that this was the case, as exactly the same thing had happened to another site
in the town from the same developer. The Society had commented, and the application had been
withdrawn.
There followed another application with a sculpture. This was felt to be nondescript, there being
proposed a craftsman at work to reflect the Brookers involvement with the site, and a less appropriate
man with a beast (cow or sheep, not clear). The Committee felt any statuary should be specific to the
town. This was only the third piece of public art in the town: the name of the artist is not known and
there is no reference to materials. The sculpture was however approved in January.
The Orchard and Anvil site
Plans were submitted, but the Society commented that the proposals were out of scale with the area,
and the application was subsequently withdrawn. A re-submission is expected.
Hitchin Museum
The revelation that the Council was to investigate moving the Hitchin Collections to the Town Hall
came out of the blue. At an NHDC Hitchin Area Committee meeting in March there was some
confusion as to whether a feasibility study had yet been done. The original idea had been for the
Collections Centre to be re-housed first, now it is the Museum, and the Council is seeking a site in
Letchworth for the Collections Centre. The Council seeks to marry two difficulties, (a cheaper museum
service and a use for the Town Hall) and expects a positive result. There is to be a meeting in May
between NHDC portfolio holders and representatives of all four Hitchin organisations to discuss this
contentious issue.
J.A.
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Town Quiz
We all walk around the town about our own business, and often fail to spot changes or additions to the
townscape. The following quiz is intended to amuse you for a little while with details of the town and its
scenery – in this edition, all of the photographs are right in the town centre. Thanks to Pansy Mitchell
for devising this quiz.
Answers on page 10.
1. Where is the photographer standing?
2. Where is the photographer standing?
3. Imposing, but nothing to say – where?
4. Where is the photographer standing?
5. Where is the photographer standing?
6. What was this once part of?
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Quiz answers:
1. North side of Paynes Park by Pelican crossing
2. Top of Woolworth’s car park, view W over West Alley.
3. Riverside, side of northern steps to water level.
4. Woolworth’s car park looking south.
5. In front of Curtain shop, Churchyard Walk.
6. Railings to keep graverobbers out of the Churchyard.
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THE HITCHIN SOCIETY
Hitchin’s Civic Society since 1962
www.hitchinsociety.org.uk
President
Mr. Paul Brenham, MBE, DL.
Vice-President
Dr. Adrian Haigh
Vice Chairman
Jane Clark
Hon Secretary
Alan Fleck
Hon. Treasurer
Tony Sudweeks
Programme Secretary
Daphne Birch
Planning Group
Jane Arnold
Keith Montague
John Davies
Publicity & Events
Jane Clark
Pansy Mitchell
Tony Sudweeks
Heritage Open Day
Tony Freeman
Tony Sudweeks
Dorothy Sudweeks
Pam Skeggs
Newsletter editor
Alan Fleck
Website
John Davies
The Hitchin Society is affiliated to
Association of North Thames Amenity Societies
(ANTAS), CPRE – The Hertfordshire Society and The Chiltern Society
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