Hemel Old Town is the borough’s best argument against the New Town stereotype

Before the New Town there was a market town on a hill, with St Mary’s at the top and a High Street that still behaves like one. Hemel Old Town is the corrective to anyone who thinks the borough begins at the Marlowes.

Independents have clustered here because the rents and the architecture still allow it. The Tea Tree serves afternoon tea. Other cafes open early for the school run. The Sunday market occupies the street with the particular chaos that planners can never quite design.

The Water Gardens sit below, Jellicoe’s 1962 landscape restored in 2017, linking the old settlement to the new town centre. That walk: church, high street, water, Forum: is the best introduction to Hemel we can offer a newcomer.

It is also fragile. A few lost leases would return the street to charity shops and empty windows. Use it, or it will become a photograph in a heritage leaflet.