Aitchisons, Hemel Hempstead
Today Hemel Hempstead is a thriving town conurbation that whilst being a stand-alone location sits immediately on the outskirts of the M25 motorway and thereafter Greater London. Despite its new town status, Hemel Hempstead has a fairly longstanding history that reportedly dates back to the Roman era.
The area has seen evidence of settlement from the Roman, Saxon and Norman eras and whilst originally an area of woodland, this was eventually cleared to make way for an agricultural hamlet. It was not until the Tudor times and around 1539 that Hemel Hempstead turned from a small agricultural hamlet into a market town. At this point in time King Henry VIII granted Hemel Hempstead its first borough charter and initiated early instances of population growth.
Although demonstrating this early history, Hemel Hempstead’s history and property stock is very much dominated by it’s new town status. Following the end of WWII, the rapidly increasing population of London needed to be defused to various satellite towns on the outskirts of the same. As such Hemel Hempstead became a new town in order to accommodate the housing overspill from the capital and today comprises a population of in the region of 80,000.
The property stock within the town ranges from sporadically scattered victorian/older properties within Boxmoor and the centre. To a fairly large element of inter-war housing, good quality ex local/local authority properties and finally more modern developments from the 1970s onwards throughout the town.
There is a variety of shopping options within Hemel Hempstead – Marlowes Shopping Centre, the Market Place and the Old Town. Marlowes Shopping Centre provides in excess of 65 well known retailers such as Virgin Megastores, Body Shop and Marks & Spencer, in all catering for most shopping requirements. Formerly the heart of the shopping services within Hemel Hempstead, the Old Town provides a much more relaxed atmosphere to that of the Marlowes Centre although it still offers a good selection of outlets and pastimes to include cafes, restaurants, small outlets and specialist stores.
Hemel Hempstead caters for all schooling needs, in all providing a significant number of primary schools alongside 6 secondary schools.
The town offers an ample selection of sporting and leisure facilities, the main centre for entertainment can be found at Jarman Park and includes a multi-screen cinema, an ice-skating facility, nightclubs and an indoor bowls centre for example. In terms of sporting activities, the town contains a wide selection of the same, the town has numerous local clubs and associations in addition to various leisure centres, athletic tracks and sporting grounds.
The town’s communication links are excellent with the nearby motorway network in the form of the M25 and M1 coupled with the mainline BR station offering links to central London, with London Euston being within an approximate 30 to 40 minute journey time.