This Hertfordshire Town Has Just Welcomed A New Luxury Development

Although Watford is perfectly poised between the rolling hills of Hertfordshire and the bustling capital, you’d be forgiven for thinking it isn’t quite a luxury hotspot – but property developer Regal London is on a mission to change that. It all starts with The Clarendon, a brand new development set to provide office space, 168 gorgeous apartments, and a dazzling array of facilities (expect a club lounge, café and a private cinema, plus two sky gardens and a gym). Sound intriguing? Martha Davies caught up with the Regal team to hear all about it.

Inside The Clarendon, A Luxury Development Setting A New Standard In Watford

The Clarendon is ideally situated between Hertfordshire and London – could you talk us through the main perks of its location?

Since Watford has always been a quite a populated location, it has infrastructure, it has shopping centers, it has businesses, and it has amazing transport. So when the opportunity came up to develop in this location, we really jumped at the chance. But the one thing we felt it lacked was a good quality residential offering. From both a commercial and a residential standpoint, the area hasn’t really seen the kind of quality that The Clarendon is offering – it’s 12 stories of commercial space and 25 storeys of residential. And especially from a residential perspective, there’s just no real comparables in the location that we were up against. So it’s really quite a new opportunity for the Watford market. 

As developers, what drew you to Watford specifically?

Given the transport links to London, and especially with people’s budgets and wanting to be closer to green space, it was a perfect fit. The Clarendon sits in Hertfordshire, a very attractive location, and it has excellent links into London – just 15 minutes direct into Euston – so it was really a no brainer from our perspective. And I think that what people are used to in Watford is standard housing or low rise developments, so what we’re trying to do is bring a bit of the London specification, the London amenities; we’ve got the 24 hour concierge, we’ve got a gym and a cinema and terraces and everything like that, which is something that they just haven’t seen. So for us it stands out from anything else.

That said, everything else is really there already. There’s a lot of investment coming into the area: Watford Borough Council is really dialled in, whether that’s in terms of business and residential, or just creating a really harmonious and exciting environment. There’s been a lot of expenditure on new roads, especially Clarendon Road, and it looks incredible. They’ve upgraded the pavements, the roads, the planting, and there’s also a lot of commercial space on the street already – big global businesses like PWC, KPMG and Ralph Lauren all call Waford their home. So we’re also seeing lots of those workers looking at rentals and purchasing at The Clarendon, which is exciting.

Education is, of course, a big factor when it comes to location. Can you talk a bit about education in the area?

Watford has a lot of very good schools in the area. Watford Girls and Watford Boys are the two grammar schools, and then you’ve also got good state and private schools in the area, both primary and secondary.

When we were looking at Watford originally, we came across the idea of the ‘Golden Triangle’, which is between Oxford, Cambridge, and central London universities. And in Watford, you have the benefit of being in easy reach of both Oxbridge and all of the London institutions, so that’s another attractive prospect.

Tell us about the facilities at The Clarendon.

Most developments that have been built in Watford have been built with standard living in mind, and we’re trying to elevate that opportunity. Especially with everything that’s happened over the last three or four years with COVID and the changes that came about afterwards, most of the developments we build now at Regal have a huge wellbeing aspect built in, really allowing for a work/life balance and a lifestyle offering. So the gym, the screening room, the cinema and the two terraces at The Clarendon offer people the chance to enjoy ther environment and make the most of it. We want to attract these owner-occupiers; we want a great community. 

In terms of the residences themselves, what was the vision for the interiors? Can you talk us through the design? 

The tower itself is essentially glass and steel, and it’s one the tallest towers in Watford. So the views are just incredible, and we really thought about how to get as much light into the apartments as possible. They’re all open plan, they’ve all got wooden floors and underfloor heating throughout. And in terms of spec, we tried to go for quite a neutral palette here: a two tone kitchen with a veneer and a lacquered unit, and then quite playful bathrooms with a colourful tile – all with the aim of creating light, open spaces.

A lot of the apartments don’t have outside space; realistically, on a 25 storey tower, if you had a bolt-on balcony on the 24th floor, it might be a bit windy up there! So what we created for many of the apartments is a Juliet balcony, with sliding doors and a glass panel on the outside. And then we have a roof terrace on the 25th floor: a really lovely space with pergolas, planting, astroturf, that kind of thing, so people can move around, read a book, do some work. We’ve got another terrace on the seventh floor, too, and the plan there is to hold morning yoga and things like that. We always try to push the envelope in terms of the level of spec that you’re getting for the price point. We’re trying to give that extra wow factor so that people really feel and notice the difference.

Can you tell us a bit about the neighbourhood?

You really have the best of both worlds in Watford – the best of three worlds, really, since London is 15 minutes away; Hertfordshire is minutes away; and then you’ve got Watford itself, which has a theatre, a big shopping centre, a high street, and a lot of businesses. It’s a place with a very strong sense of civic pride and identity, and that comes through really well; it’s something that we noticed in a lot of our conversations with schools and businesses in the area. People really are proud to be in and from Watford, so it’s a nice place to be. I think it has the reputation of being a commuter town, but there are so many business there that it’s a really sizable place in its own right. It was actually named as the UK’s best place to live and work as part of Lambert Smith Hampton’s vitality index this year – an annual assessment of towns and cities outside London. So that’s really exciting, too.

And what’s The Clarendon’s commercial space like?

The Clarendon’s office space sits within The Clarendon Works, a dedicated commercial building, and it’s designed to be one of the most sustainable buildings in the UK: it’s certified by Ofgem’s Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO) scheme, which means it operates using renewable energy, and it’s also been pre-certified under the WELL Standard, a global marker of buildings that promote health and wellbeing.

We currrently have three occupiers going into The Clarendon Works. One of these is YoooServ, a really interesting serviced office/coworking concept taking over all the amenities in the office building – including a café on the ground floor which is open to the public, 

How would you describe The Clarendon’s demographic when it comes to buyers?

It’s a mix, really. You’ve got a lot of the local market who are buying as an investment opportunity, or for their families. There are also a lot of first time buyers coming in and buying some of the studios, the one-beds, that kind of stuff. The building is actually split: the lower portion has a lot of studios, with about 11 units per floor; then, at level eight, the unit numbers drop to six per floor all the way up to the 25th floor. The penthouses at the top are being picked up by owner-occupiers, some overseas, but also locals with children.

So it’s a real mix of people, but overall, it’s more owner-occupiers than investors – although we’ve been approached by several parties from PWC and KPMG who want to rent, so once we complete in the next few weeks, we’ve got a handful of renters already standing by to jump in, with buyers who are very happy to take those tenants on board. 

Prices at The Clarendon start at £275,000 for a studio. For more information, visit regal.co.uk