Hemel Hempstead

Town of Hemel Hempstead

Hemel Hempstead (aka "Hemel") is a town in Hertfordshire, England with a population of 81,143 at the 2001 Census.  Developed after World War II as a new town.  Hemel Hempstead has existed as a settlement since the 8th century. It is part of the district (and borough since 1984) of Dacorum.

Hemel Hempstead is located at Latitude 51° 45'N and Longitude 0° 28' 20" W (west of the Greenwich Meridian) and is 43 km. (27 miles) north west of Central London.

Hemel's position on the shortest route between London and the industrial Midlands put it on the Sparrows Hearne turnpike road in 1762, the Grand Junction Canal in 1795 and the London and Birmingham Railway in 1837.

Hemel steadily expanded, but only became a borough on 13th July, 1898.

After World War II, in 1946, the UK government designated Hemel Hempstead as the site of one of its proposed New towns designed to house the displaced population of London. 

The first new residents moved in April 1949 and the Hemel Hempstead continued its planned expansion through to the end of the 1980s.

The M1 motorway is routed just to the east of the Hemel Hempstead.

Official Town of Hemel Hempstead website: www.dacorum.gov.uk