Atria Watford Shopping Centre and Watford Museum

 

Watford Atria, January 2023, photo by Trevor Sharot. Copyright.

Atria shopping centre Watford is a major attraction in Hertfordshire, started as Harlequin, became Intu and is now named Atria. The car park has parent and child spaces and changing areas for babies in the toilets.

The once open air area is now roofed in and revamped.

Whilst in Watford, visit the Watford Museum, which is owned by the council. The history of Watford is entertaining. Singer Marie Lloyd in 1915 performed at the Palace Theatre in Watofrd. I was impressed that a singer used to travel between central London and Watford twice in the evening, to perform the first and last songs at one venue in central London and the songs either side of the interval in Watford. Her song to the Boy In The Gallery (The boy that I love is up in the gallery) was written to be sung as if to a singer's boyfriend (who in real life later became her husband). 

I have previous posts on the Watford shopping centre, Xmas lights from earlier years, and the Watford museum.

Useful Websites

https://www.watfordmuseum.org.uk/

https://atriawatford.com/centre-info

Watford Museum, conveniently beside the station

Watford Museum must be the most easy to find museum in London, right beside the station, just beyond the café.

Unfortunately it isn't open every day of the week. I always phone a museum or anywhere I am visiting to check. They might close unexpectedly, because of an event, or open unexpectedly, because of an exhibition or holiday.

I like to look at the outside of a museum or other public building even when it is closed. As a photographer, I have a chance to read all the notices outside, choose my angles for exterior photos, even decide which time of day would be best for a photograph of the outside. If your outside photo is not good enough for you, you can take a better one when you go back.

What did I find out? First the opening times. 10 until five. That probably means that you need to arrive by four, to allow time to see it and in case they are sticklers for time and won't let you enter after 4 or 4.30.

It's open Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So open three days, but not the whole weekend. Closed Sunday.

Next information - kiddie activities. Thursday morning  in the summer holidays. And a passport you can get stamped at more than one museum.

Heritage Watch.  Things I would never imagine you would need to prevent. My first thought would be police are patrolling to prevent theft. I must admit that graffiti and arson had never crossed my mind. Depending on the site, all sorts of activities could damage it. People using metal detectors. Unauthorised excavation.

And now for more fun. The little gallery tearoom. Fourth Saturday of every month, excluding July and December. 10.30-4 pm. You see what I mean about needing to phone.

The station you want is Watford High Street, not Watford Junction. 

After the museum, you can walk up the High Street to Intu shopping mall. On the upper level there's a little train. When I last looked it cost about £2 for a ride. But even if you are not riding, it's very jolly and amusing to watch it tootling along.

Here's there train at Christmas time, very jolly.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.