Cinema giant signs up

Entertainment giant Warner Bros. has just signed an agreement to make Watford’s proposed leisure complex at Woodside one of the best in the country – and that’s not all folks. Along with the state-of-the-art eight-screen mulitplex cinema, the site will house Bass Leisure’s Hollywood Bowl and offer diners the choice of the Deep Pan Pizza Company or spicy Mexican food at Chiquitos. Up to 300 jobs will be created by the scheme and Warner Bros. promises a major movie star will visit to put the first spade in the ground. The announcement comes at a time when Woodside residents are again rallying to protest against what they have dubbed the “Horrordome”.

[July 1, 1994]

First for newspaper

25 years ago this month, the world watched in disbelief as astronaut Neil Armstrong took “one small step for man and a giant leap for mankind”. His incredible stroll across a ghostly lunar landscape in July 1969 changed the course of history. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, the Watford Observer was also breaking ground, albeit in a rather less dramatic fashion. This newspaper became one of the first weeklies in the country to publish colour photographs. They were pictures of Earth as seen from the moon. The story accompanying the pictures said readers would recognise the scope of full colour techniques now at the Watford Observer’s disposal and that it would develop those techniques in the year ahead. The prediction was, in hindsight, a tad optimistic; colour pictures were not published regularly in this newspaper for another 22 years.

[July 1, 1994]

Film star told to get the bus

Film star Richard Gere was advised by the owner of a village fishing shop to get on a bus to Watford if he wanted to buy a pair of slippers. Mrs Sue Chapman, of Harefield Tackle, did not recognise the actor and thought he was some kind of down-and-out when he asked for slipper-style moccasins. She said: “I had no idea it was him because he had an overgrown beard and sunglasses. He asked for slippers and we didn’t have any, so I told him to get on the 348 to Watford.” At the time Mrs Chapman did not realise a man who came in just before the star was actually his driver. Mrs Chapman said: “He asked the driver if he knew where Watford was and he said yes and they both gave a grin and went to the car.” It was only as they left the shop Mrs Chapman saw a large black Daimler outside. This drove off, not to Watford, but back to Pinewood Studios where the Hollywood actor has just started filming First Knight, in which he stars as Sir Lancelot.

[July 8, 1994]

Jabs project huge success

The programme to immunise children in Hertfordshire against infectious diseases has been a huge success, according to the first annual health report for the county. Reductions in measles and the life-threatening whooping cough have been recorded and the number of mumps cases has also declined across the county. More than 93% of children are now vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella.

[July 15, 1994]

Temple plan for leisure site

North Bushey residents say they will riot if a plan to build a Hare Krishna temple on the site of the Hartspring Leisure Centre goes ahead. Bushey Heath Councillor Ron Gealy has approached Hertsmere Borough Council managing director Mr Philip Copland with the idea of knocking down the ageing centre in Park Avenue and putting a purpose-built Hindu temple in its place. The idea has been cleared with Conservative group leader Cllr Pat Spratt, but Bushey Mill Community Association secretary Mr Ron Foster said residents will fight it “tooth and nail”. “There will be absolute uproar if they do that. It is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” he said.

[July 22, 1994]

Row over pool closure

A new row erupted over the closure of the William Penn Swimming Pool on Wednesday night, with Councillor Terence Palmer at the centre. Rickmansworth Consultative Committee was the scene of a scathing attack by Cllr Palmer. The former chairman of the council was angry at colleagues who had, in his words, “whipped the public into a frenzy” about the proposal to close the pool during building work. The pool, in Shepherds Lane, Mill End, is to be converted into a modern leisure centre costing nearly £1.8million. After it was announced in May the pool would have to close for up to a year while the work was completed, angry swimmers signed a petition as part of a campaign for a rethink. After the repetition was received, councillors discussed a new scheme in an attempt to keep the pool open for as long as possible. Cllr Palmer said: “For some of our members to try to whip the public up into a frenzy, getting petitions together and organising campaigns is just not appropriate.”

[July 29, 1994]

Blooming marvellous

Judges have declared Sarratt one of the most attractive villages in Hertfordshire. It won the central and West Hertfordshire region of the Best Kept Village Competition after being awarded a string of top marks by examiners. Sarratt was placed joint first with the St Michael’s district of St Albans. It was then picked as the fourth best entrant in the whole of the country-wide competition. Gardeners and helpers in the village have spent months making Sarratt as attractive as possible.

[July 29, 1994]

Lake fun days cancelled

All the fun of the fair was wasted at the weekend when only a handful of families turned out to enjoy the Bushey Lake Summer Fun Days. The poor attendance on Saturday forced organisers to close the event on Sunday, leaving the future of any similar activities in serious doubt. Mr Fred Treliving has co-ordinated the clean-up and reopening of the lake, which is situated next to Bushey Golf and Country Club in High Street. He said he is mystified as to why the weekend of fun and games failed.

[July 29, 1994]

What was happening in the world in July 1994?

• Colombian footballer Andres Escobar, 27, is shot dead in Medellin. His murder is commonly attributed as retaliation for the own goal he scored in the 1994 World Cup (July 2)

• Rwandan Patriotic Front troops capture Kigali, a major breakthrough in the Rwandan Civil War (July 4)

• Jeff Bezos founds Amazon (July 5)

• The film Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks, is released (July 6)

• A preliminary trial rules there is enough evidence to try O.J. Simpson (July 8)

• The Allied occupation of Berlin ends with a casing of the colours ceremony (July 12)

• A terrorist attack in Buenos Aires destroys a building housing several Jewish organisations, killing 85 (July 18)

• Tony Blair is declared the winner of the leadership election of the Labour Party (July 21)

• Israel and Jordon sign the Washington Declaration as a preliminary to the Israel-Jordan peace treaty, which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948 (July 25)