Rebuilding the centre

Between 2016 and 2024 the shopping precinct at the heart of South Oxhey was pulled down and rebuilt as South Oxhey Central.³⁴ With three smaller sites elsewhere on the estate, the scheme produced 659 new homes, new shops, a market square and a Lidl.^32,34,248 It was the biggest building project on the estate since the 1950s, and it was done in three phases by the council, a developer and a housing association.^222,227

Why the centre was rebuilt

The St Andrew's precinct was the estate's busiest place.^208,343 A 2009 review for the council found that the centre had more shop space than the community needed, and suggested one large supermarket with fewer small shops.²⁰⁸ By 2011 its buildings were about 60 years old.^208,343 The council leader warned in September 2011 that the council was subsidising shop rents in the precinct, and that these would have to rise to commercial levels.²⁰⁸ Surveyors reported in November 2011 that the buildings needed heavy investment, and that refurbishment would buy only about 20 more years.^208,343

In 2011 the council asked the consultants Terence O'Rourke to draw up a plan called the South Oxhey Initiative. It was shaped by community workshops and two open days.²⁰⁸ The first open day, on 7 April 2011 at the parish council offices in Oxhey Drive, drew 370 visitors, and 77 per cent of those who filled in a questionnaire said South Oxhey was a place they were happy to call home.^207,208 Visitors marked their preferences on the display boards with green sticky dots and written notes, choosing between options that ran from keeping the green spaces to a community space with function rooms and a better market.²⁰⁷ The questionnaire went to every household as the centre pages of the Three Rivers Times and could also be filled in online, and the results were due at the Watford Rural Area Forum at Oxhey Wood School on 30 June 2011.²⁰⁷ The second open day, on 15 September 2011, drew 1,080 visitors and was billed simply as the future of South Oxhey.^208,344 People wanted a better market and a community hub, and felt that Prestwick Road or Oxhey Drive would be the best frontage for a new market square.²⁰⁸ Only 3 per cent voted for no change, but more attendees backed refurbishing the precinct (38 per cent) than redeveloping it (29 per cent), with 30 per cent stating no preference.^208,213,343 The plan, finished in December 2011, recommended rebuilding the whole centre.²⁰⁸

Not everyone was happy with how the asking was done. Residents writing on Our Oxhey complained that the events were held during working hours and poorly advertised, one suggesting a notice board at the station, while the local Labour party said it supported the initiative.²⁰⁷

One block on the estate went before the town centre work began. In January 2011 the tenants of Nanscott House, a block of flats in Prestwick Road beside the Methodist church, were looking forward to moving into new homes being built beside Clitheroe Gardens, and demolition of the block began that August.²¹⁰ New residents moved into Beck Mason House, built nearby as part of the same scheme, in May 2015.²¹⁰

On 30 January 2012 councillors of all parties voted to redevelop the precinct and the flats above it.²¹³

Finding a partner

The first attempt stalled. The architects Levitt Bernstein ran a public event for the council in September 2012, when 55 per cent of those who returned forms backed the plans.³⁴⁵ In October 2013 the council reviewed its plans and looked for a new partner, saying it could do better than the deal offered by the housing association Catalyst.^346,347 In January 2014 opposition councillors complained that £629,198 had been spent with nothing to show for it, and the council leader defended the spending.³⁴⁸ At a second event, held on 27 March 2014, 63 per cent backed the plans.^349,350

In February 2015 the council announced a successful bid for government Local Growth Deal money through the Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.³⁵¹ Final bids from developers came in on 27 March 2015, and the two strongest were from Countryside Properties and United House Developments.³⁵² On 21 May 2015 the council chose Countryside Properties and the housing association Home Group, and the contract was signed by the end of that year.^222,223

The partners and designers

Three Rivers District Council owned the land, bought out the remaining owners and granted long leases to the developer.²⁰² Countryside, whose partnerships arm is now part of Vistry Group, built the homes and shops.³⁵³ Home Group sells its shared ownership homes under the name Persona Homes.³⁵⁴

Several design firms were involved, and their own accounts overlap. Hertfordshire Building Control names Gardner Stewart Architects as the scheme's architect, and Gardner Stewart designed Station Square, with landscaping by Philip Cave Associates.^243,355,356 BPTW says it designed the third phase for planning, and HAP Architects, whom Countryside credited as designer in 2023, says it worked on that phase too.^357,358,359

Planning permission

Countryside applied in January 2016 for up to 458 homes on the centre and homes on three smaller "satellite" sites: open space at Maylands Road, the site of the Jet pub on Hayling Road and the old services club at Hallowes Crescent.³⁶⁰ Together the four sites covered 4.76 hectares.³⁶¹ The council wrote to 5,555 addresses and received 21 replies, plus two small petitions against building on Maylands Road.³⁶¹

The planning committee approved 514 homes in March 2016, and permission was issued on 31 May 2016.^202,225 Of these, 96 (18.7 per cent) were affordable, all at first for social rent. That matched the number of social rented homes being lost, but fell well short of the council's target of about 45 per cent. An independently checked viability study said the scheme could afford no more.³⁶¹ Oxhey Hall Residents Association thought six and seven storeys excessive.³⁶¹ The plans split the work into six stages so that residents could be moved in turn and shops could keep trading for as long as possible.³⁶¹

The council said the scheme would give 388 more homes than before, and its monitoring report later recorded 126 homes demolished.^229,362

The library and the station

Oxhey Library was not rebuilt. In 2016 the county council said talks were continuing and asked for developer money to enlarge the library's public space instead, and the library still stands beside the new blocks.^25,361 The station itself was not part of the scheme, but its forecourt was rebuilt in Phase 1B as Station Square (see the station).

Compulsory purchase

Some flat owners and shop leaseholders had not sold by agreement, so the council made a compulsory purchase order.^202,231,232 The inspector at the public inquiry heard that by November 2016 the council had committed over £11.8 million to buying land, and that the Homes and Communities Agency was giving £2.83 million towards the affordable homes.²⁰² New homes at Maylands Road and Hallowes Crescent were meant to let precinct tenants move just once.²⁰² After the inquiry, the government confirmed the order on 27 March 2017.^202,231,232

Phase 1: the first four sites

Before anything came down, Our Oxhey volunteers went round the precinct and the other sites in April 2016 and photographed them as they stood, so there is a record of the old centre taken deliberately, a few months before the machines arrived.³⁶³

The first work, in September 2016, was knocking down Baden Hall, the old Scout hall, and laying temporary car parks on Henbury Way.²²⁷ The official ground-breaking was held in Oxhey Drive on 6 December 2016.²²⁹

Phase 1 produced 140 homes on four sites.³⁶⁴ At Hayling Road, where the Jet had been demolished on 15 March 2011, eight three-bedroom houses called Hayling Place were built.^227,234,365 They were finished by September 2017 and were on sale at around £490,000.³⁶⁵ The first residents moved in during October 2017.^227,234,365

At Hallowes Crescent an earlier scheme had already failed. The Watford Observer reported on 12 November 2010 that the Crescent Club, once the Services Club, and its garages were to become four three-bedroom flats in a two and three-storey building for the housing association Paradigm, which said the building was underused.²²⁸ By June 2012 that application was not going ahead, and the site was eventually cleared under the South Oxhey Initiative instead.²²⁸ In its last years the club had kept going on private money put in by a few individuals.²²⁸ It came down in September 2016, and 22 affordable flats took its place, finished by April 2018.^227,228

The Maylands Road site gave 26 more affordable homes, in two blocks on Ferndown Road called Warburton Court and Pugh Court and in two houses on Ballater Close.^227,366 These 48 homes for social rent were occupied in spring 2018.²²⁷

Phase 1A was built on the old Bridlington Road car park at the corner of Oxhey Drive.^227,367 Our Oxhey followed that site closely. Demolition of the car park and the garages at the junction of Oxhey Drive and Bridlington Road began in December 2016, with a temporary car park built in Henbury Way and reached by a walkway down the side of the Ox.³⁶⁸ Foundations and steel frames were going up in May 2017 and a crane was on site that December.³⁶⁸

The phase has 84 flats, 21 for shared ownership and 63 for private sale, first occupied in spring 2018.^227,367 They are in four blocks of 21 flats each: Tippen Court and Bowerman Court on the new Bucknall Place, Fayer Court on Henbury Way and Elliott Court on Oxhey Drive.³⁶⁶ By June 2018 the four blocks were near completion with a sales office open, which sits a little later than the spring 2018 first occupation given by the developer's own account of the phases.^227,368 Tippen Court remembers Councillor Len Tippen, who represented South Oxhey, and Elliott Court a couple who helped found Oxhey Jets. The parish council suggested those two names, and a naming ceremony for Tippen Court and Elliott Court was held in July 2019, although photographs taken on the site in June 2018 already show all four names in place.^364,368 The council gives no reason for Bowerman Court or Fayer Court.³⁶⁴ A new play area on the old Henbury Way Gardens was opened as Ann Shaw Garden, after the former council leader who died in May 2017.^239,369

Station Square

Phase 1B rebuilt Station Approach around a new public space and shops called Station Square. Barclays had closed early in 2015.^143,367 The detailed design, approved on 20 January 2017, has 19 units for shops and offices: 18 in four blocks and a small triangular café in front of the station.^32,370 The loop road was kept but shortened, with a taxi rank, bus stops and a car park behind.³⁷⁰ A car sales business from Station Approach was moved to the site of the Fayer Hall Scout hut on Oxhey Drive.³⁷¹ The scout hut was demolished in March 2017, and by December that year the car sales and repair business was on the site and a new scout hut had been built near the Pavilion on the playing fields.²³³ The old bank and the other buildings were coming down in May 2017.^143,367 Access to the station was kept open throughout.³⁶⁷ The new units filled slowly, and in the council's survey for 2017 to 2018 only two of the nine units finished by then were occupied.³⁷²

Phase 2: the market square

Phase 2, north of St Andrew's Road, was approved in October 2017 with 174 homes, 48 of them affordable, and work began in 2018.^234,243,373 The Ox pub, once the Pheasant, came down between January and 4 May 2018.²³⁷ The north side of the precinct followed between September 2018 and March 2019.³⁷⁴ By September 2018 the work at Hallowes Crescent, the Jet site, Ferndown and Maylands Roads, the Bridlington Road car park and Station Approach was already finished, and demolition in Prestwick Road and St Andrew's Road was well under way.³⁷⁴ By March 2019 new shops and flats were going up on Prestwick Road facing Tesco, while the rest of the north side came down at the St Andrew's Road junction and the block facing the library in Bridlington Road followed it.³⁷⁴

The phase has blocks of up to seven storeys around a new Market Place, and 12 mews houses.³⁷³ The new blocks are Clarendon Court, Graham Taylor Place, Corbie House, Warneford House, Pearkes House, Blackwell Place and Hampden Place, on Bucknall Place, Bridlington Road, Prestwick Road, Fairfield Avenue and the new St Andrews Way, which follows the line of the old St Andrew's Road.^375,376

In March 2020 the council agreed to give the market its own space on Prestwick Road, with water and power for up to 14 stalls, run by Watford Rural Parish Council.²⁴² The first Phase 2 shops opened in October 2020, with Greggs and Nisa among those signed up.³³ By 1 February 2021 all the Phase 2 shops were open alongside the market square, and by September 2021 all 174 homes had been handed over, making 314 in all.^246,377 The parish council now holds the market every Sunday.³⁷⁸

Phase 3: Lidl and Tom Lake Way

Under the 2016 permission, the last phase would have had 200 homes and none affordable. Countryside instead won a new permission in spring 2020 for 345 homes, 65 of them affordable, in two large buildings over podium car parks, with a Lidl on the ground floor.³² The southern building has 200 homes and rises to seven storeys on Prestwick Road, and the northern one has 145 homes in blocks of up to six storeys.³² That raised the whole scheme to 659 homes, 182 of them affordable.³²

The last of the old shops and flats, including the old post office, were demolished between 26 November 2020 and 4 February 2021.²⁴⁵ The demolition turned up something older. When the shopfronts were stripped off the last blocks in November and December 2020, ghost traces of the original shop signs came to light underneath, many of them from the 1950s, and Our Oxhey photographed them before they went.³⁷⁹ Our Oxhey's photographs of the old post office corner were taken on 26 November and 2 December 2020, as the demolition got under way, and a pair taken from Woodhall Lane show how the skyline changed once the last block went on 4 February 2021.²⁴⁵ Building of the Lidl on the old post office site was under way by 23 March 2021, and further photographs follow it through that April and June and on through 2022.^245,380 The new buildings reached their highest point on 8 September 2021.²⁴⁶

The southern building (Phase 3A) was finished in the second half of 2022, with blocks called Waddington, Bevan, Buxton, Nightingale, Nathan and Forge House and a terrace called Holt Row.^34,359 Lidl opened on 3 November 2022 at the corner of Prestwick Road and Oxhey Drive.²⁴⁸ The northern building (Phase 3B), with Scott, Hunters and Thompson House, followed between April and September 2024, going by the government's energy certificate register.³⁴ The council's monitoring reports record 191 Phase 3 homes finished in the two years to March 2024.^381,382

The new street between the two buildings is Tom Lake Way. The parish council had named and opened it by June 2024, in memory of Private Tom Lake, a former Oxhey Jets player, who was killed in Helmand on 20 November 2011, aged 29.^253,383,384

The phases at a glance

Sources for the table are given in the sections above.^32,34,227

What it cost

The government's Local Growth Fund money is reported differently: about £2.3 million expected when the bid was announced in February 2015, £980,000 in a December 2016 release and £2.25 million on the Local Enterprise Partnership's own project page.^224,229,351

The value put on the scheme grew as it went on. Council press releases called it a £150 million scheme in March 2016, a £172 million one from December 2016 to 2019, and a £218 million one from 2021.^{225,229,364,377} Countryside put the scheme's value at £180 million in 2018.²³⁹

Criticism and praise

Watford Rural Parish Council objected strongly to the third phase in 2020. It said 65 affordable homes fell far short of the council's policy, that the developer's viability studies were kept confidential, and that all 96 social rented homes in the earlier phases had gone to existing tenants, so there was no gain in affordable housing.³² It also said warnings from the Royal National Institute of Blind People about Station Approach had been ignored.³²

Empty shops were a problem during the works. The council counted 63.5 per cent of South Oxhey's units empty or unfinished in September 2021, and blamed the rebuilding.³⁸⁵ For September 2024 the council gives two different answers. Its monitoring report says 53.8 per cent were empty, while its press release on the same survey says one unit was vacant.^382,386 No source we found explains the gap.

Writing on Municipal Dreams in 2022, Jill Stewart said the new blocks tower over the older estate around them.²⁵ The scheme was shortlisted at the Evening Standard New Homes Awards in 2022 and the British Homes Awards in 2023, and won a regional LABC Building Excellence Award in 2023.^358,387,388

Other renewal on the estate

Other building went on around the estate in the same years. The Chess, 33 homes on the site of the Grapevine pub at Prestwick Road and Heysham Drive, was given permission in March 2017 and finished in 2019.^{235,236,389,390} From 2022 Thrive Homes fitted outside wall insulation to homes on many South Oxhey streets with the help of a government grant.^249,250,391

The swimming pool on the old Sir James Altham school site shut in 2020.^244,392 The county council approved an adult day centre there in August 2024 to replace Northwick Day Centre.²⁵⁴ Extra care homes have been proposed for the pool's land.^244,392 The playing fields were refurbished too (see The playing fields).

At Foxgrove Path, Watford Community Housing built 53 homes, 17 for affordable rent and 36 for shared ownership.^256,393 Their energy certificates were lodged in November 2025, and the landlord now welcomes residents there.^255,394

Where it stands in 2026

Going by the energy certificate register, all 659 homes were finished by autumn 2024.³⁴ In September 2026 Countryside was still advertising its last one-bedroom flats, and the centre has Lidl, a Nisa Local, a pharmacy, Greggs and a post office.^395,396