Town centre living back in the 1970s

In recent years, Ashford has been inundated with colossal amounts of new housing, with some saying that there is ‘no even balance’ in this building against what the borough has to offer.

With the town centre needing urgent assistance to become future proof against the likes of out of town shopping, careful decisions need to be made on the future of Ashford so as not to harm areas of it any further than they have been already.

With the likes of McArthur Glen Designer Outlet asking for extended opening hours, careful consideration needs to be given as to whether this is fair on the businesses in the town centre and would be a due consideration for any other facility asking the same.

If such decisions are made without this thought and consideration, we really will see the tumbleweed blowing through our town centre streets, where the hustle bustle of shoppers once existed.

You only have to look at old photographs of the town centre to see how successful and how ‘complete’ it was in respect of business in the town’s heart, as opposed to the shadow of its former self we see today.

In the 1960s and 70s, housing in the town centre was being obliterated in favour of new roads and new development and a number of suburban new estates were cropping up out of town.

Nowadays, town centre living is coming back, with many new builds and also conversions cropping up in every other street, it seems.

As much as the trend seems successful, I don’t favour office conversion to residential, insomuch as it removes the employment space and opportunities that come with it.

Likewise with shop conversions to residential. Many of these were never designed as such, so leave them be and offer the residents of Ashford something instead of them having to venture elsewhere.

Although gaps have regretfully appeared in Tenterden’s trader portfolio and streetscape in recent times, some due to the pandemic, it still acts as a ‘model’ to what Ashford should be and in many respects reminds us of what Ashford once was.

This week, Remember When takes a nostalgic look back to 1972, illustrating some of the town centre’s long-lost residences earmarked for destruction and in the way of development of the time.

Do you have any photographs or slides of old Ashford that you would be willing to loan me to scan for possible feature in the Kentish Express? Please get in touch - email rememberwhen_ kmash@hotmail.co.uk

1972: Another view of the memorable residential dwellings in New Street which once stood opposite the Prince Albert and Prince of Orange public houses, prior to the creation of the Magazine Road roundabout. The Roman Catholic church of St Teresa of Avila designed in Neo-Gothic style by Edward Pugin, can be seen in the distance on the extreme left of the picture.

1972: A rare view showing New Street and the Prince Albert public house on the left whilst in its Ind Coope and Double Diamond livery and nos. 113-141 New Street. It was prior to the alterations in the road layout, that a nasty and notorious road junction existed, a blackspot which was said to be treacherous in rush hour.

1972: In this view, both Longley’s and Steven’s premises have already been demolished. The three-storey dwellings also disappeared as part of the scheme, which today sees no.74 as the last building/premise on that side of the street.