The strategic placing of the Croxley Business Park and Holywell Industrial Estate within such close proximity to the M25 has enabled the development of this area into a thriving space of commerce and opportunity. The Business Park is a community of over 60 companies and 2400 employees, ranging from the large multinational scales, including Kodak and GE Money, to smaller start-up businesses. These businesses are serviced by a wide range of amenities, and positioned next to a beautifully mature expanse of green parkland, providing idyllic surroundings for people to enjoy their work. The situation of the park in this location brings with it fantastic opportunities for employment and economic development within this area, which is heavily dominated by other commercial properties and industrial use buildings.

In the 1870s, the only recognisable feature of this area was the wooded park to the West. The rest of the area was comprised of expansive open fields. Between 1890 and 1910, these fields were bisected by the development of the London and North Western Railway. From historical maps, it can be seen, between the period of 1910 and 1960, that the surrounding areas, including Croxley, were expanding in form and scale. However, this area remained largely untouched and maintained its previous use as fields and farmland. It wasn’t until the end of the 1960s that this area became substantially urbanised by Watford Council with the development of Holywell Industrial Estate. Since then, the area has experienced a fair few instances of redevelopment, but historically speaking, the buildings largely date to the latter part of the 20th century. It was this initial development which signalled a change to the economic prosperity and expansion of this area.

A little-known fact about this area is that many years ago (thankfully we’re talking the 1900s), much of this land was dedicated to a sewage farm. Whilst this may seem like a neighbour you’d want to avoid, it turns out the people living nearby loved it! Many people had allotments and they gladly used the sewage as fertiliser for their plants!

Due to the heavy presence of industrial estates in this neighbourhood, the landscape is generally viewed as very hard and concrete, with large spaces taken up by parking. The provision of greenery is limited to some hedging and trees around the area’s periphery. Despite this, a short distance to the North is Cassiobury Park, which is an area of high quality green space available for all to use.

Most of the developments within this area are occurring within Croxley Park as they ambitiously aim to expand the existing site. In 2021, a development by the original name of Building 1 was completed and provides 85,000 sq ft. of high quality office space. Not long afterwards, Buildings 2, 3 and 4 were developed, further expanding office space provision in the vicinity. With a few more office developments in the pipeline, the whole scheme would total 350,000 sq ft of space, alongside a multi-storey car park. In 2019, ‘The Hive’, a state of the art hub, opened to the public, introducing a myriad of new activities, including a purpose-built gym and event space, as well as a cafe, meeting spaces and a nursery. All of the developments that we just mentioned were also designed to be energy-efficient and environmentally conscious.

While Croxley Park has certainly benefited from a great deal of redevelopment, the area’s connectivity to different parts of London is a bit limited. Croxley benefits from a tube station, Croxley Station, that makes this part of Metroland pretty easy to reach from places as Central to London as Baker Street and even Liverpool Street through the Metropolitan Line that connects them. That said, there were in the past plans to expand the area’s public transport network by developing the Croxley Rail Link, which would connect Croxley Station and the Metropolitan Line to Watford Junction and its Overground services. For now, the plans have been shelved but attempts to resurrect it and gain TfL’s attention are gaining momentum, so better to keep an eye out for any updates.