Town in Hertfordshire, England
Watford
The famous Watford Gap services aren't in Watford at all, but the real town has a Hornets football team, a Bond film studio and Elton John's fingerprints.
Key information
- County
- Hertfordshire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- About 102,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Watford FC and the Hornets, the Elton John and Graham Taylor years, Cassiobury Park, the Harry Potter studio tour at Leavesden
- What locals are called
- Watfordians
- Famous people
- Graham Taylor, Elton John, Luther Blissett, John Barnes (all tied to the football club)
- Football clubs
- Watford FC, nicknamed the Hornets, at Vicarage Road
About Watford
The Watford Gap that isn't in Watford
Every motorist who has stopped at Watford Gap services on the M1 has been in Northamptonshire, miles from the Hertfordshire town. It's named after a village and a natural pass through the hills up there, and Watford itself has nothing to do with it. The real Watford does have a place in motorway history, though. When the M1 opened in November 1959, the first stretch ran north from the Watford area. Junction 5 still serves the town today. The name itself is thought to mean a ford, a river crossing, with the River Colne running through the town. A hart (a stag) still appears in the football club's badge.
How a pop star and a manager rocketed the Hornets
Watford's story is one of English football's great fairy tales. Elton John became chairman in 1976 and brought in Graham Taylor as manager in 1977. At the time, the club was in the Fourth Division. Five years later, Watford were in the First Division. They finished second in the top flight in 1982-83, behind only Liverpool, and played in Europe in the UEFA Cup the following season. In 1984 they reached the FA Cup final, losing to Everton. The team wore yellow, red and black, which is where the Hornets nickname comes from, and the club's mascot is Harry the Hornet. Luther Blissett and John Barnes were stars of that era. Graham Taylor is remembered with a statue outside Vicarage Road. The Hornets have bounced between divisions since, with Premier League promotions in 1999, 2006, 2015 and 2021, and a second FA Cup final in 2019, where they lost 6-0 to Manchester City.
Bond, bombers and Harry Potter
Just outside the town, at Leavesden, a wartime aircraft factory turned into one of the world's great film studios. Handley Page Halifax bombers were built there in the Second World War. In the mid-1990s the empty factory hosted GoldenEye, the first Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan. Then came the Harry Potter series, shot at Leavesden over about a decade. Since 2012, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour London has let visitors walk through the real sets, props and costumes. It's one of the most-visited film attractions in the country, and the main reason many people have heard of Watford at all.
A town built on beer, print and railways
Watford grew fast once the London and Birmingham Railway arrived in 1837. Trains meant brewers, printers and factories could send their goods straight into London. Brewing was a big name here. Benskins was one of the town's best-known firms, and Watford beer travelled across the south-east. Printing became the other great trade, and for much of the twentieth century big presses turned out newspapers, magazines and books. The Metropolitan line later pushed out to Watford in 1925, tying the town to London's Underground. Today Watford Junction has fast trains to Euston, which is why so many residents commute.
Lime trees, canal boats and a lost mansion
Cassiobury Park is Watford's green showpiece, a large park that once belonged to the Earls of Essex. Their grand house, Cassiobury House, was demolished in 1927, but the park survived and has a famous avenue of lime trees. The Grand Union Canal runs through it, so narrowboats drift past families feeding ducks and children in the paddling pool. It's a surprisingly rural scene for a town this close to London. For culture, the Watford Palace Theatre opened in 1908, and the Colosseum, in the town hall building that dates from 1940, is the town's big concert hall.