IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Kipling Way, BOREHAMWOOD, WD6 2FZ

A view from the North end of the site looking South-West. The brick wall running left to right of centre is the back of a number of specialist store rooms where hazardous items were kept away from other buildings. On the right of the picture is the original 1935 Furnace Building with a smaller 1970s extension added on. This area now forms part of Shelley Close and Shakespeare Drive.

Looking towards the North end of the site. Nearest building on the right is the end of the Hydraulics Laboratory. On the left, going away from the camera, a single storey office/small lab building, the roof just visible of the old 'Lecture Theatre', then over the grid line into TQ1996 is the workshop and the original 1935 'Appliance Building'. The site road from the far end of the carpark onwards is roughly the line of the present Coleridge Way. In the far distance is Elstree and Borehamwood railway station - the footbridge is just visible.

The 'Models Laboratory', built 1958, seen from the main building. At one time the largest fire test building in the world. So-called because models of buildings were constructed in it for fire tests. It had a section of the roof opened by a hydraulics mechanism to vent gases from these tests. The blue doors with a large concrete surround visible in the photo cover an opening into the building - on the far side a 12ft (4m) diameter electric fan could draw in air through the opening on this side across the building at speeds of up to 30mph to see the effect of wind on burning objects. A closer view of this building is in Image The building lies on the grid line between this square and TQ1996

Bracketed by semaphore signals, a class 45 diesel locomotive approaches the station at speed with a fast passenger service from St. Pancras. It has just exited the tunnels that carry the line under Deacons Hill and Scratchwood. The semaphore signals are in their last months of service (in 1979) as they are to be replaced with colour light signalling - one of which is visible with the white X denoting that it is not in use. John Webb informs me that the buildings at the top of the embankment on the left belonged to the Fire Research Station. The site now has houses on it.

A closer view of the Models Laboratory seen in Image; this side lies just within this grid square. From left to right we have the round pump house - an electric 500 gallons/minute pump feeding hoses and hydrants in the Lab - over it is a 5000 gallon water tank feeding the pump. The rest of the single-storey extension housed toilets, instrument and work rooms. Near the camera is the air inlet for the wind area across the end of the building; the single storey extension on the far side houses the electric motor driving the fan and its controls. (The chimney is on a building further away.) The South ends of two of the present blocks of flats in Coleridge Way lie on the area this building once occupied. The East arm of Coleridge Way follows the line of the site road heading off at the right of the picture. (Photo scanned direct from a 35mm Agfa colour slide.)

Entrance to the Clarke Building complex. On the left on the ground floor was the FRS computing section, above it the Library. On the right the offices and smaller laboratories. Straight ahead the main entrance and above it a large plant room.

View of the Eastern side of the Fire Research Station Site, developed and bought into use in 1978. On the right nearest the camera is the end of the Lecture Theatre, just beyond that is the Publicity/AV/Photography building, and across the centre lies the Clarke building, the major offices and laboratory complex and named after a former Director. The area nearest the camera was part of a private sports ground, the area beyond the Clarke building disused allotments. Beyond the site left of centre is one of the gasholders in Station Road and on the distant far right is Borehamwood's only tower block. Closer views of the Clarke building at Image and Image The East arm of the present Coleridge Way follows roughly the line of the site road.

The Clarke building complex seen from the west. Contained numerous special laboratories, offices, the FRS Library, computing facilities and stores. Opened 1978.

Academy Court and Footbridge at Elstree & Borehamwood Station in centre. Byron Avenue towards front of picture. The buildings in the middle, going away from Byron Avenue towards Academy Court, are on the site of the former Fire Research Station which moved to the Building Research Establishment at Garston in 1993. Taken September 2004.