These men appear to be having an enjoyable time as they have a chat over a can of beer but they were likely to have been feeling very mixed emotions on a day that marked the end of an era in Watford’s industrial past.
The pictures were taken by a Watford Observer photographer at a last day party on September 30, 1983 – a party held to mark the final day of Odhams.
The company was originally founded in 1890 but it took the name Odhams Press Ltd in 1920 when it merged with John Bull magazine.
- A street view that has hardly changed
- The small town centre road no longer a two-way street
- Memories of the Italian restaurant next to a cinema
Odhams’ relationship with Watford really started 15 years later when building started on the land that is now home to Asda close to The Dome Roundabout.
Odhams (Watford) Ltd grew to cover more than 17 acres by the mid-1950s, employing almost 2,500 people.
The business continued to expand and modernise in the 1960s, but by the middle of the next decade it was making losses despite printing some very popular magazines.
There was fresh optimism in 1981 when Odhams won a big contract to print a new colour magazine for the Sunday Express. But that optimism was to prove shortlived after Robert Maxwell bought, and quickly closed, the business, signalling the end of large circulation magazines being mass produced by the photogravure printing process in the town.
Although it was the end of Odhams, printing continues on the North Watford site to this day.
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