Shenley Road is constantly evolving with new shops and eateries. Suruchi Sharma looks at how Borehamwood’s high street used to function with only six shops.

Nowadays people are used to a high street with a multitude of shops catering for their needs.

In the Thirties, the high street had a smattering of convenience stores filled with food, shoes and household goods.

Mary Hanson’s parents’ sweet shop, Hanson and Maude, opened in 1933 in Shenley Road where Starbucks coffee shop now stands. The building was constructed in 1899, originally as a furniture shop.

Behind the shop Miss Hanson’s family ran a teahouse selling sandwiches and home-made ice cream. She recalls working in her father’s shop as a child.

She said: “We used to live above the shop and I worked with my brother John from a very young age helping out.

“We sold sweet goods including tarts, cakes and pastry and we also sold confectionery. We made our own ice cream in flavours such as vanilla, chocolate, tutti frutti and strawberry. I remember vanilla was the most popular flavour.

“People used to buy the puff and sweet pastries and would take them home and I remember customers saying guests would compliment them.”

Miss Hanson recalls there were six shops in Shenley Road in the Thirties which included her parents’ shop, a greengrocer, Tuckers the drapers and Clintons the hairdresser.

She said: “There was quite a good mixture of shops. Later on there were two or three dress shops and there was a shoe shop owned by Mr Wilkins. My brother went there but I remember a lot of people went to Watford to buy their shoes.”

Miss Hanson said Theobald Street was originally considered the high street.

She said: “The high street just seemed to move away naturally from there around the corner to Shenley Road as the area developed.”

Miss Hanson said there were several restaurants even before the deluge of coffee shops and eateries appeared in present-day Shenley Road.

She said: “There were a number of factories in the area. The two biggest were Keystones Knitting Mills and Wellington & Wards, which sold photography equipment. Both factories employed about 800 or 900 people who obviously needed places to eat.

“There was also Elstree Studios that brought in a lot of passing trade. I remember a number of famous faces would come to the shop and sometimes we wouldn’t realise. We would treat them as normal customers though as there would always be somebody coming in who was famous.

“I remember we had Sophia Loren who was filming The Millionairess at MGM studios.

“This was during the time when she was staying at the Norwegian Barn, in Elstree, and her jewellery was stolen. It was only when she started speaking did we notice that it was her.”

Miss Hanson’s shop closed in 2001 and a Marks & Spencers was built on the site, followed this year by Starbucks.

She added: “A lot of the original shops have gone and it seems in recent years shops are opening and closing all the time.

“It could be because rents are too high but it is not really the high street that it used to be.”