And one of those three 'most promising' new town sites is in north London, so I've been to Crews Hill to see what's there and how it might change forever.
Crews Hill is probably best known for its garden centres of which there are unexpectedly many, several of them on the large side. These green hubs have also attracted patio merchants, cladding specialists, commercial greenhouses and numerous other horticultural hangers-on, all covering a substantial area which could perhaps be defined as brownfield. Elsewhere are paddocks rather than productive fields, a few scattered homes and the inevitable golf course, all with a conveniently central station 40 minutes from central London. The local council call it "low value land" and have already drawn up detailed plans for substantial transformation. New town status would only turbocharge the lot.
This is the most northern corner of north London, bumped up against the orbital collar of the M25. The motorway has already despoiled the northern edge of the site and protects the Hertfordshire flank from negative visual impact. The Moorgate-Stevenage railway divides the site in two, so the plan is to place most of the new housing to the east and most of the recreational land to the west. To either side are two of London's less spoiled rivers, the Turkey Brook and Cuffley Brook, both pencilled in as 'ecology corridors' rather than housing arteries. Hence Enfield's current blueprint is for an urban centre near the station and four constituent neighbourhoods - Cattlegate, Kings Oak, Owls Hall and The Meadows.
Crews Hill is the 10th least used station in Greater London, such is the paucity of existing housing hereabouts. It lies on the Hertford Loop railway line, two stations beyong Enfield Chase at a reasonable commuting distance from the City. It's a very lowly station, just two platforms and some stairs down to a car park that doesn't stretch to twenty vehicles, all ungated and entirely unstaffed. It could quite easily be upgraded into something step-free, but would require more than the existing half-hourly train service to justify a new town. There's talk of bringing these Great Northern lines under TfL control, likely under the Overground umbrella, but don't expect anything like that any time soon.
This is CATTLEGATE(red on the map)
It's the best known part of Crews Hill, the road with all the garden centres, the neighbourhood name arising because that's called Cattlegate Road. It's currently somewhere people who need compost and a new shed drive to, then get sucked into the additional opportunities to buy rattan furniture, rose bushes, plaster statues, turf, double glazing, carpets, tropical fish and industrial strength Christmas lights. Throw in a meal at Redwood Bistro or The Plough and you can make a day of it, maybe even go for a Thai massage or get some tattoos done. However nigh all of this is destined to be swept away to create Cattlegate, other than the large Edwardian pub, scattering innumerable small businesses to the winds in favour of urban scale high density development. A few existing cottages should survive, in the same way that you still find nucleated Victorian throwbacks in the heart of Harlow New Town, but North London's retired gardeners will need to find somewhere else to source their bedding plants.
This is KINGS OAK(pink on the map)
It's a separate neighbourhood slotting into the southern end of the site along the existing spine road, and named after former King's Oak Farm. I don't think a motel is planned. Instead the proposal is for mid-density townhouses amid woodland elements, plus a new secondary school on the other side of Theobalds Park Road round the back of the Whitewebbs Museum of Transport. What disappears are more existing businesses but on a larger scale, including an industrial estate, a premium flower importer, a metal recycler and an equestrian centre of 25 years standing. If you're tasked with buying up land on which to build housing, the larger the existing plots the better. One thing that doesn't disappear is the woody field round the back of the mega-greehouses which instead becomes a new park. Also safe is the thin loop of formerly-isolated bungalows where the 456 bus turns round, suddenly destined to form an anachronistic blockage sandwiched between acres of modern infill.
This is OWLS WOOD(purple on the map)
It's due to be a low-density neighbourhood adjacent to the station on land that's currently undeveloped Green Belt. It'll smother 60 acres of paddocks created by Baron Matthews of Southgate, a Thatcherite tycoon who was the proprietor of the Daily Express and had a penchant for thoroughbred racing. He lived in Owl's Hall, the Italianate Regency mansion at the top of the slope whose estate was nibbled away by the M25, and which may now look down on a swathe of eco-rooftops. Also being gobbled up is Crews Hill Golf Course, a vintage 18 holer, although only the clubhouse and car park are destined for housing and the fairways instead become Cattlegate Park, the chief local recreational space. Intriguingly two sprawling detached piles near the station look to be safe, whereas by evicting a couple of well-off families at least 200 station-adjacent flats could easily be slotted in. The Enfield Society would be aghast however things fall.
This is THE MEADOWS(green on the map)
It's the smallest of the proposed districts and also the least originally named, meadows being its current state. The new neighnbourhood would bear off Burnt Farm Ride, London's northernmost country lane, which grinds to a halt at the M25 so you'd think would be pretty quiet. Not so, it's busy with trucks and vans heading to various employment hotspots hidden amidst the paddocks, including a solar panel factory and hubs for haulage, skip hire and body repair. Enfield's plans include retaining a larger industrial stripe between The Meadows and the M25, also sneaking in a sports pitch or two, and all within easy walking distance of the new town's main coffee-fuelled piazza. Of all the existing parcels of land this is the one that most screams "how could they even be thinking of building on that?", only to turn one's head and think "oh, I see someone already has."
Enfield Council's plans for Crews Hill are already reasonably advanced, even if they can't possibly continue unless a Green Belt exemption is granted. They also have their sights on Chase Park close to Oakwood tube station, where the despoilation of fields would potentially be considerably worse. I wrote about the possible impact on the slopes overlooking the Merryhills Brook back in 2022. But the ultimate impact hereabouts may be considerably worse. Enfield have only proposed a total of 9000 homes across Crews Hill and Chase Park, whereas the government's New Towns Taskforce reckons there may be room for 21,000 if the two projects are expanded and merged to full new town status. It's all about priorities, because if we want new houses for the 21st century they have to be built somewhere, and these proposals are no worse than the plague of building that created the outer suburbs in the first half of the 20th.
