Hatfield

Hatfield had a good history of distinctively designed buildings before its expansion into a new town in 1946. As home of the De Havilland corporation from 1930, Hatfield acquired a number of Art Deco buildings in the interwar period, including the De Havilland Factory itself, EB Musman’s Comet Hotel and Torilla by FRS Yorke. The towns post war plan was devised by Lionel Brett (later Lord Esher), and added a great swathe of housing estates to the south of the new town centre. In this area there is a range of housing designed by various renowned post war architects including Maxwell Fry and his wife Jane Drew, Basil Spence, Lionel Brett and Tayler & Green. Maxwell Fry also devised the design for the town centre. Hatfield also boasts other interesting buildings such as Peter Bosanquet’s triangular St. John’s church and the hyperbolic paraboloid roofed Hatfield Pool.