Pitsea, Railway Hotel And London Road c.1955

Photo ref: P145028

More about this scene

Harold George Howard Perhaps one of the most influential landowners in the 1920s was Harold George Howard. Howard's Dairies grew over 60 years into a prosperous business with eight distribution centres, 30 shops and 1,000 employees. His vision in 1925 was to create 'something really special' for the unplanned country village of Pitsea, turning it into a thriving town with a Tudor theme. He drew up plans for houses and shops in that style and organised their construction. The first Tudor building was the Railway Hotel, built on his own land, which he sold to a brewery. Howard then went on to design the Broadway shops and the cinema (later renamed the Century, but now Gala Bingo) on the southern side of the High Street. Opposite is a parade of shops and an office block which still houses Lloyds Bank, but the road now has a complex set of traffic junctions. The Second World War scuppered Howard's Tudor dream; but his buildings have survived the building of the New Town, and his name is preserved in Howard Crescent, where examples of his residential development can still be seen, and in Howard Park. The war memorial, incorporating a statue of a Greek maiden, was originally sited on the corner of Station Lane and Pitsea Broadway but was shifted to Howard Park to ease traffic problems. Mr Howard died in March 1961, and is buried in the family's enclosure at St Margaret's Church, Bowers Gifford.