Park View House

Photo:Park View House, on west side (even numbsers) of Milton Road, with row of detached houses on the east

Park View House, on west side (even numbsers) of Milton Road, with row of detached houses on the east

LHS archive, cat.no. B 3.98

Photo:View from Park View House in Milton Road across the common in the 1890s by Kate Richardson.

View from Park View House in Milton Road across the common in the 1890s by Kate Richardson.

LHS archive, cat.no. B 3.99

Glimpse of a Victorian villa

By Rosemary Ross

Two photographs, copied as slides in 'Captain Bond's Old Harpenden' collection in our archives, are captioned as Park View House, and view from Park View House respectively (though identifying the buildings across the common, beyond the railway, is problematic). 

This was one of first houses to be built on the Park View estate, which was planned in 1884 by John Robert Brown, in conjunction with the estate agent and auctioneer John Cumberland, both of Luton.  It was built for William Joseph Richardson, a friend of John Brown, who lived there with his wife and two daughters. His younger daughter Kate was an amateur artist, whose small known output includes two views from the gardens of Park View. Kelly's directories do not list this building after 1924, when she was living there after her parents' deaths. It would appear that it remained vacant until demolished and Milton Court built by 1958.

This page was added by Rosemary Ross on 29/04/2011.
Comments about this page

According in 1901 Kelly's directory Park View was the fourth house on the south (sic) ie west side of Milton Road from Station Road and it was a William Joseph Richardson who lived there. Both the 1891 and 1901 census support this and give the additional information that he was a retired farmer and land agent, born in Hummanby, C.Yorks and was 71 in 1901.

Next questions: where is Hummanby and did William farm in or near Harpenden at any time? One of his daughters (unmarried) was still living in Park Veiw in 1923 but I haven't checked beyond that.

By Diana Parrott
On 10/05/2011

Hunmanby - a slight spelling correction there - is in North Yorkshire, just south of Filey. Hunmanby Hall was a noted private school for girls under Methodist Church auspices, which closed in 1991, when it was turned into flats.

By Alan Bunting
On 10/04/2012
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