Bridge over Spitalbrook, St Catharine's estate

Image: © Chris Brown Taken: 31 Jan 2019

The position of this highly individual estate on the left bank of the Spitalbrook puts it in Hoddesdon, although it connects more naturally with other estates in Broxbourne and is part of the Broxbourne Conservation Area. The pierced bridge parapets, treating the stream crossing as something worthy of more than routine attention, establish the estate as something of a place apart immediately on entry from the Old North Road. Developed from 1883 onwards, the houses were designed by the architect Reginald Blomfield, most of whose early commissions were in the Hertford area. Reginald Blomfield was later to have a huge influence on British landscape as the designer of both a much-copied template for a World War One memorial and the standard National Grid electricity distribution pylon. He also designed the rebuilding of the southern curve of Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus in London and of The Headrow and Eastgate in Leeds.

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