Aldershot and Farnborough
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ALDERSHOT AND FARNBOROUGH Character Assessment 1 OVERVIEW........................................................................................................................................2 2 CHARACTER AREA DESCRIPTIONS........................................................................................7 2.1 ALD01 North Camp and Montgomery Lines.....................................................................7 01a. North Camp.........................................................................................................................7 01b. Montgomery Lines ..............................................................................................................8 2.2 ALD02 Aldershot historic core (town centre)............................................................... 12 2.3 ALD03 Cargate Avenue and Grosvenor Road environs .............................................. 15 2.4 ALD04 Large retail and civic areas (Wellington Avenue environs)............................ 19 2.5 ALD05 Military housing and environs (Wellington Avenue, Ordnance Road and Redan Hill environs)............................................................................................................ 22 2.6 ALD06 Aldershot industrial estates .................................................................................. 25 2.7 ALD07 Aldershot Manor Park environs........................................................................... 27 2.8 ALD08 Aldershot Station environs.................................................................................... 30 2.9 ALD09 Aldershot: twentieth-century residential suburb............................................. 32 09a. North Town and Deadbrook environs....................................................................... 32 09b. Church Lane West environs.......................................................................................... 33 09c. Cranmore Lane environs................................................................................................ 34 09d. High Street, Ash Road and Lower Farnham Road environs................................... 35 09e. Auchinleck Way environs............................................................................................... 36 2.9 FARN01 Farnborough Station and environs.................................................................... 41 2.10 FARN02 Farnborough Aerodrome and associated business parks............................ 44 2.11 FARN03 North Farnborough (civic and shopping centre) and environs.................. 48 03a. Modern shopping centre ................................................................................................ 48 03b. Farnborough Central Retail Park and industrial estates.......................................... 49 03c. Hawley Lane industrial estate........................................................................................ 50 2.12 FARN04 Summit Centre and Southwood Business Park ............................................. 53 2.12 FARN05 Queen’s Road environs (part of this area is also known as North Camp) ................................................................................................................................................. 56 2.13 FARN06 Farnborough Park and South Farnborough .................................................... 60 2.14 FARN07 North Farnborough residential suburbs.......................................................... 63 07a. Tower Hill environs......................................................................................................... 63 07c. North of Fleet Road ........................................................................................................ 65 07d. Fox Lane, Hawley Lane and West Heath ................................................................... 66 07e. Wren Way and Cherrywood Road environs ............................................................ 67 07f. Sandy Lane and Hill Corner environs.......................................................................... 68 07g. Southwood......................................................................................................................... 69 07h. Woburn Avenue Environs.............................................................................................. 70 2.15 FARN08 Farnborough Green and Farnborough Street ................................................ 75 2.16 FARN09 Cove ........................................................................................................................ 79 1 Status: FINAL Autumn 2010 Hampshire County Aldershot and Farnborough Integrated Character Assessment Townscape Assessment 1 OVERVIEW 1.1 Aldershot and Farnborough are two urban areas separated by a large military camp in north-east Hampshire, adjacent to the county boundary with Surrey which follows the course of the River Blackwater. Along the line of the valley there are numerous lakes created through gravel extraction, beyond which are further urban areas associated with Ash and Mytchett. The western edge of the conurbation is sharply defined by the woodland of the Forest of Eversley. To the north, suburban growth has pushed beyond the line of the M3 motorway, facing out into a lowland mosaic of small and medium-sized fields and woodland. 1.2 Until the mid-nineteenth century much of the area of these two towns was an expanse of heathland and common surrounded by a landscape of small, irregular fields and small settlements. Most of these were hardly more than hamlets, of at least medieval origin, at Aldershot, Cove, Farnborough Street and Farnborough Green, and a there were a number of isolated farmsteads. In addition there were a number of large houses set in park-like grounds at Aldershot Place, Farnborough Place and Windmill Hill (which was re-built in 1859 and re-named Farnborough Hill). In 1882 Farnborough Hill became the home of the Empress Eugenie who built a mausoleum for the bodies of her husband, Emperor Napoleon III, and her son, the Imperial Prince, and also established St Michael’s Abbey. 1.3 In 1853 an army training camp was held on Chobham Common in Surrey. The success of the training camp led the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Lord Hardinge, to seek a site for a permanent training camp. Aldershot Heath was chosen and the owners agreed to sell almost 10,000 acres for £12 an acre. Originally it was intended to create a tented camp at Aldershot but the Crimean War resulted in the need for better accommodation and two hutted camps were built; North Camp and South Camp were constructed on either side of the Basingstoke Canal. Further barracks for cavalry, infantry and artillery were built closer to the village of Aldershot. The need to house troops returning from the Crimea meant that Aldershot was required to become a permanent barracks, and during the 1880s and 1890s the huts were replaced with brick buildings and middle-rank officer-class housing was built. Gradually the camps were provided with facilities and infrastructure such as schools, a hospital, a power station and sewage works making Aldershot a complete military town. Even some of the roads were built to accommodate a marching army and so were wider than usual. 2 Status: FINAL Autumn 2010 Hampshire County Aldershot and Farnborough Integrated Character Assessment Townscape Assessment 1.4 In 1905 His Majesty’s Balloon Factory was set up in Farnborough. From that time, and under a variety of names, Farnborough became one of the key sites in Europe relating to developments in aviation technology until it was closed in 1999. 1.5 The arrival of the army had a massive impact on the two small settlements, particularly Aldershot which was closest to the camp. In 1851 the population of Farnborough was 477 and Aldershot a little under 1,000. By 1861 Farnborough had a population, including military personnel, of 5,530 whilst Aldershot’s population had jumped to 16,720. This figure had almost doubled by 1901, at which date there was a population of 30,974 in Aldershot. The presence of the camps led to new commercial centres being built to serve the two camps and the rapidly expanding population which, from the 1860s–1870s, had also begun to include rail commuters to London. New streets were laid out to the north of North Camp including Alexandra Road and Canterbury Road, with a series of streets connecting the two. Building plots within this area were developed in a piecemeal fashion over the next two decades with a mix of short terraces, detached houses and some villas. Further streets were laid out by the end of the nineteenth century, with part of Farnborough Park being taken into the residential area, but there was piecemeal development and many of the streets had undeveloped plots between properties, many of which remained undeveloped between the wars. The Ashley Road and Manor Road area, south of Farnborough Street, was one of the few areas that saw concentrated development in this period. 1.6 The two towns expanded rapidly in the later-twentieth century, with the infilling of empty plots within the earlier street pattern and replacement of many of the large villas with flats and tighter-grain housing. Large new housing estates were built, particularly to the north of Farnborough, housing mostly commuters working in London or nearby centres of employment such as Guildford or Basingstoke and using both the railway and the M3 motorway. The military development has shaped the relation with North Farnborough and Aldershot and the