Page "Hemel Hempstead" Paragraph 24

Like other first generation new towns, Hemel is divided into residential neighbourhoods, each with their own " village centre " with shops, pubs and services.

Each neighbourhood is designed around a few major feeder roads with many smaller cul-de-sacs and crescents, intended to minimise traffic and noise nuisance.

In keeping with the optimism of the early postwar years, much of the town features modernist architecture with many unusual and experimental designs for housing.

Not all of these have stood the test of time.

A significant issue was how to choose names for all the new roads.

Many areas of the new town used themes e. g. fields, birds, rivers, poets, explorers, leaders, etc.