Time to form Friends of the Sun Printers/Engraving Clock Tower? (From Watford Observer)

Time to form Friends of the Sun Printers/Engraving Clock Tower?

1:30pm Thursday 9th February 2012

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IT IS nice to note that one of the last remnants of “the splendour that was Cassiobury”, namely Little Cassiobury, close to the much enlarged former Watford Technical College, appears to have a future.

I wrote about the building several times during my stint on the Watford Observer. It seemed as if the powers that be were letting the deserted building run down, so that it would be deemed “too expensive to renovate” and so another piece of Watford’s dwindling past would become demolition dust.

Naturally it would have been replaced by some modern monstrosity. There have been many examples of this policy in the past and Watford has suffered from it more than most towns.

I remember, thanks to some lobbying by the likes of Mary Forsyth, another listed building, Frogmore House in the lower High Street, was at least rendered weatherproof. That too looked destined for dilapidation through inertia.

Now Little Cassiobury has been embraced in the future plans and saved from the ravages of neglect.

However, I note the old Sun clock tower, which we were told was to be renovated, is still in a parlous state. This art-deco tower, situated at the bottom of Whippendell Road, serves as a monument to Watford’s Printing Past and the town’s prosperous yesteryear. If it had not been for the likes of Cassiobury and later, the printing industry, Watford may well have been a smaller player in the Hertfordshire game.

At least some vestige of Cassiobury remains, along with the old people’s home in Richmond Drive, formerly the stables, but what of the clock tower?

They ought to start up a group called Friends of the Clock-tower. There must be enough old Sun employees to mount a fair-sized lobby. Or are there not enough to care?

ONE thing we did notice during our Christmas visit: Watford was so accessible. I know this was bad news for the retailers but if there were any examples of festive grid-lock round the ill-conceived one-way system, we missed them.

Of course the financial climate is responsible and that in itself is a sad and worrying state of affairs and it is something we cannot escape simply by sailing to Calais.

However, while Christmas shopping in Watford could never be described as a genteel affair in recent years, if it was not for all the east European accents and languages overheard in the Mall this Christmas, it was like driving into and shopping in the Watford of yesterday.

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Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here