Gerrards Cross
Gerrards Cross, known for its open common and picturesque Latchmore Pond, had been a place of resort ever since the 1790s. Genteel houses sprang up, attracting enough wealthy visitors that it began to be known as the ‘Brighton of Bucks.’ The opening of the Great Western and Great Central Joint Railway in 1906, with a station at Gerrards Cross, gave hundreds of Londoners the opportunity to live in ‘Beechy Bucks.’
Gerrards Cross: A History celebrates the energy and imagination of the pioneer architects, builders and estate agents who ensured that Gerrards Cross became a high-class residential area, both socially and architecturally. It also applauds the entrepreneurs who opened their new shops and services when the commuter houses were still on the drawing board, and the brave newcomers who brought their families to live in the country, but depended utterly on their reliable train service to London.
JULIAN HUNT was born in Worcestershire in 1949 and joined the staff of Birmingham Reference Library in 1968. He was first published in 1973 and later moved to Buckinghamshire County Library in 1988. He has written numerous histories of Buckinghamshire market towns as well as other areas of England.
DAVID THORPE was a lecturer in Urban Geography at Durham University. As an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of London, he has been working on the history of 19th-century Buckinghamshire. In 2000 he established the Bucks Local History Network.