31 Jul 2024
The flagship city centre development now known as Jubilee Square was officially opened at a special ceremony today.
A ribbon was cut by Mayor Cllr Jamie Day, council leader Cllr Paul de Kort, Cllr Jacqui Taylor, the cabinet member for housing and community safety, and St Albans MP Daisy Cooper.
The project, on the site of the old police station and NHS facility on Victoria Street, has been six years in the making and cost £64 million. As well as housing, it also incorporates commercial space, with a café already confirmed for the round building at the front.
The council has sold all 93 residential properties to Watford Community Housing, which plans to make 33 available for social rent and sell 60 apartments on a shared-ownership basis with support from Homes England.
The opening ceremony was attended by representatives from SADC, Morgan Sindall Construction and WCH, with other guests including members of the Quakers, who bought a burial plot at the site back in 1676, and which now forms a community garden tastefully incorporated into the development.
The Mayor described the project as a once in a generation opportunity, and although it took longer than expected, it was a successful collaboration between many different agencies, and had produced a range of highly sustainable commercial and residential buildings, and a much more welcoming and inclusive space.
He said he hoped it would prove a catalyst for the development of the area of the city centre between St Peter’s Street and Bricket Road.
Cllr de Kort told guests: “I believe that everybody should be able to live in a decent affordable home and these new homes are more than decent in their design, space and the quality of construction and they are affordable thanks to this council’s commitment to facilitate the building of places with high social and community value.
“Watford Community Housing, supported by Homes England funding, have enabled these homes to be filled in the quickest way possible. They have a great deal of experience in managing property assets in a way that will allow the new community here to enjoy living here for many years to come. I thank them for all the hard work they put in to get this large deal over the line under what turned out to be a very tight time frame.
“But of course you can only bring new life into what have been a disused and unloved space, as the Mayor said, by pulling together a committed project team of council officers and the expertise of Morgan Sindall Construction. Projects of this scale require strong collaboration and recognition of mutual interest to succeed.
“Jubilee Square delivered on budget and looking so grand today is evidence of this. So I thank Morgan Sindall, their subcontractors and the council officers who have all worked together over six years to deliver this. There are too many people to name check them individually, with just one exception, Jenny Stenzel, who has been so closely involved in this project from start to finish.
“I’d like to end by reflecting back to what the Mayor has said about this project’s wider impact. We have here a new living space created in a very sustainable location. The residents and later the workers here will provide footfall to help this city’s town centre continue to thrive. And the public space provided will add to the amenity of so many more. This really is a significant new landmark for the city.”
