On the western side of central Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire; sits the neighbourhood of Adeyfield. Similar to much of the Hemel Hempstead locale, this areas contain a wealth of difference in terms of housing, ammenities, and local infrastructure - even though they sit side by side! Hemel Hempstead’s housing stock is varied, from postwar suburban detached housing, privately built town-houses from the 60s and 70s, as well as suburban terraced housing, ranging around the £500,000 price-point.

Whilst the old historic centre of Hemel Hempstead’s history spans back to the medieval age, the neighbourhood of Adeyfield’s history originates from WWII. After the end of WWII in 1945, London faced a severe shortage of housing following from the Blitz, which destroyed over 475,000 houses. As the UK’s population was strongly centralised to the London locale, following the aftermath of the blitz, it became increasingly necessary to divert populations elsewhere to prevent the over-crowding of London. In an ambitious egalitarian scheme, Parliament passed the New Towns Act in 1946. The New Towns Act is a monumental piece of British planning and architectural history, which designated new sites for towns or the power to develop existing settlements into much larger populuses. The new towns included: Harlow, Milton Keynes, Stevenage, Crawley, Welwyn Garden City, and Hemel Hempstead. Hemel Hempstead was designated as a New Town in February of 1947, with construction beginning in 1949. Adeyfield was the first area of Hemel Hempstead to be built under the New Towns Act, with the first foundation stone laid in April 1949, finishing construction in 1956!

As such, the housing in Adeyfield is typified by its unique mid-century postwar housing character, with several privately built houses from the 1950s and 1960s. Houses are detached, semi-detached, or terraced, sometimes with pre-cast concrete or traditional brick. Similar to much of the postwar housing character, Adeyfield was built with the intention of constructing ‘self-contained’ and ‘self-sufficient’ neighbourhoods that could operate independently from London and other large cities, and was largely inspired by Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City movement!

Whilst Adeyfield’s postwar construction means that recent redevelopment has been slow; the Dacorum Council’s Local Plan 2024-2040 is aiming to develop over 11,000 new homes in in order to transform the wider Hemel Hempstead area!