IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Rothesay Road, LUTON, LU1 1QX

Decorative relief panels below windows are an eyecatching feature of older houses.

Built 1957 to the designs of Ministry of Works architect Thomas Winterburn. Greatly influenced by the prevailing modernist architecture of the day (inspired by the work of Swiss architect Le Corbusier).

Plaques of this kind are often to be found on public service buildings designed by architects in the Office of Works, and its successors, the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Public Building and Works.

Looking north just after take-off from the airport. The A505 passing round the town centre and the Midland Line railway can just be made out.

Postbox No. LU1 231.

The magistrates court is on the right

Thanks to old maps it can be seen that these stepped blocks of flats with their heavy balconies were built on the site of 54 Napier Road and the side garden of No 1 Downs Road Image They first appear in part on an OS map of 1986.

The older 3-storey block in the centre of the photo is named rather oddly Victoria Villas on a 1:500 map of 1880. It appears to have always been so, and has not changed since apart from the insertion of shops, the nearest of which is on the corner of Cardigan Street. There were a further five properties immediately to the northwest named Brighton Terrace, nos 12-26, houses with long rear extensions. They appear to have been replaced by 20th-century development perhaps as a result of the widening and re-alignment of Dunstable Road. The view is from the pedestrian crossing at Inkerman Street and Cardiff Road.

One of a handful of houses that first appear on an OS map of 1901. My estimate is that between 1949 and 1951 I attended a kindergarten here. It was called Cleveland School and was run by a Miss M E Greaves. Perhaps it was rather progressive because we made things of clay in a rear garden that may have been on two levels, stepping up towards Luton Cemetery, maps now tell me. There was a seemingly huge lawn to the east side, perhaps a former tennis court. We performed in plays on it in the summer to entertain the parents. One time I was the gardener who painted the white roses red in Alice in Wonderland while some diminutive curly-haired blonde stomped about shrieking "Off with his head!" That ground is now occupied by part of Lennon Court and its parking Image No 1 Downs Road appears to be flats. Thanks to staff at Luton Library who helped me track down the property in a 'Luton News' street directory of 1950.