IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Oxhey Drive, WATFORD, WD19 7SQ

Forfar House is an apartment block which, together with two similar blocks, overlooks a green off Oxhey Drive. Part of Filton House can be seen in this picture. The estate at South Oxhey was developed by the then London County Council (LCC) in the early 1950s, one of a number built on the fringes of London to help relieve overcrowding in the inner city area. It was not actually within the LCC's area and is still within the modern boundaries of Hertfordshire today. In 1980 the Greater London Council (which had absorbed the LCC) passed the ownership and management of the estate to Three Rivers District Council. Today, a large proportion of the housing stock is privately owned and the remaining social housing has been transferred to a housing association.

For as far as the eye can see both sides of this straight section of Oxhey Drive are lined with these Fastigiate Hornbeam trees (Carpinus betulus 'Fastigiata').

Blocks of garages built for residents in flats and houses with no space for a garage are an often overlooked and in many cases neglected feature of the urban landscape. This block though certainly appears to be well-maintained.

This library on Oxhey Drive must be one of the southernmost outposts of Hertfordshire County Council's Library Service. Writing about Hertfordshire County Council reminds me that in the 2009 County Council elections the votes cast in the South Oxhey Division were: British National Party: 783 Labour Party: 756 Conservative Party: 671 Liberal Democrat: 446

This pub is in Bridlington Road at the western end of the St Andrew's Road shopping centre.

The large London County Council development at South Oxhey was built in the early 1950s to relieve overcrowding in the inner city, where much of the housing stock had been lost due to wartime bombing. The houses here are typical of local authority estates of the era including this terrace on Oxhey Drive. The houses were generally well-built and relatively sizeable with decent gardens - in some ways better than their equivalents built for the private market. They must have seemed like paradise for many of their first residents. Today a majority of the houses at South Oxhey are privately owned.

I'm not certain of the date of this photograph but believe it to have been taken in the late 1930s

The parade of shops in Prestwick Road serving the east end of the post-war South Oxhey housing development, viewed looking northwards up Prestwick Road.

St Andrew's Road is a wide pedestrian precinct containing the main shops in South Oxhey. Since retail units tend to change ownership and use over time, for the record in June 2009, the occupiers were, left to right, Jacksons, nameless, the Gold Centre, Wimpy, Cheapjacks, Taylor Convenience Store, the late lamented Woolworths, and Homecraft.