The first studios build were Whitehall Studios built in 1928. This became a sound studio in 1929.
In 1929, Andrew Harkness first entered into the screen-manufacturing business with his 18-year-old son Tom, the business operating partly out of the Whitehall Studios. His business rapidly grew and became hugely successful manufacturing woven screens and then washable woven screens. At one time the facility made the Guinness world record largest movie screen.
Nearly at the junction of Shenley Road, there is a building with a ’chequered past’. It was originally built as a Baptist Chapel in 1894. Then it became the ’Gem’ cinema in 1914, where local people could watch themselves as extras in silent films made in their village. In the 1930s the local council used the building as offices and finally it became a public convenience before a florist business took over.
While always called Station Road, the road only became the site of the station at the turn of the millennium with the demolition of old cottages. An area dedicated to buses was built here.