Heritage body to consider protecting print works

A heritage body has said it will soon visit a former printing plant that was once the largest in Europe following an MP's request to get the building nationally listed.

The final copies of the Daily Mirror were published in St Albans Road, Watford last month after Reach, the paper's owner, transferred operations to a site in Broxbourne.

The building is locally listed by Watford Borough Council, but the town's Labour MP Matt Turmaine believed its "striking design and important local links with the print trade" meant it should get national protection from Historic England.

He said residents had raised concerns the plant could be demolished and a "loved landmark" lost.

Historic England said it would submit its recommendation to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport following its visit to the site, which started to be built in 1935 by publishing firm Odhams and was modelled on Stockholm Town Hall

The government department will then make the final decision.

At its peak in the mid-1950s, the Odhams site covered more than 17 acres (6.8 ha) and employed about 2,500 people.

It was said that at one time nearly everyone living in Watford had a job connected to the print industry.

"It would be a tragedy to witness a potential loss of this celebrated building, risking a loss of a culturally significant part of Watford's print history," Turmaine said.

Last month, SAVE Britain's Heritage added the former Odhams Press Hall, along with more than 200 others, to its register of buildings at risk.

Henrietta Billings, the charity's director, said these places are "central to the identity and character of places we love".

"Instead of lying empty and neglected, they should be repurposed and contributing to good growth now and for future generations."

Watford Borough Council lists local buildings for a number of reasons including for their architectural and historical interest, but which do not merit statutory protection.

Historic England adds buildings and sites of exceptional or special interest to the National Heritage List for England and provides them with legal protection.

Any changes that might affect their special interest then have to be managed through the planning system.

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