High Town, Luton

High Town is an inner area of Luton immediately north of Luton railway station, and a ward of the Borough of Luton, in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England.

The area and ward are officially spelled as two separate words. This is also the most common spelling of the name, but some organisations and businesses use 'Hightown', e.g. Hightown Baptist Church and Hightown Community, Sports & Arts Centre.

Around 1841, landowner Frederick Burr began to sell off fields in High Town for development. Burr Street and Duke Street were two of the earliest side streets leading off High Town Road. Added impetus for development came with the railway. The Hertford, Luton and Dunstable Railway arrived from Dunstable at Luton′s first railway station in Bute Street in 1858. Two years later saw the line's completion to Hatfield. Soon after, Wenlock Street, Havelock Road, Dudley Street and North Street were laid out. The latter two had a mix of small industrial units and housing. The Midland Railway arrived in 1868 and a second station was opened immediately north of the Bute Street station. The line's construction necessitated some re-routing of roads and demolition of property in High Town. Direct pedestrian access to Luton town centre from High Town Road was now via a lattice–sided footbridge.

First edition Ordnance Survey maps surveyed in 1878 show two iron foundries off Cobden Street and a dye works off York Street. St Matthew's School on Havelock Road had separate infants and boys and girls departments. The Methodist Chapel on High Town Road had an attached school for girls and infants. Next door was a cottage hospital. A water works had been built off Crescent Road. Detached residences with gardens sloping down to the River Lea had been built on Villa Road and New Bedford Road. One of the plots was for a St John′s College.

High Town Road had been developed up to and beyond Jubilee Street by 1900. A school and dye works for straw plait had been built on Old Bedford Road. Across Hitchin Road there was scattered development on Crescent Rise, Hart Hill Drive and Hart Hill Lane. The Wesleyan Central Mission was built in 1903 near the Midland Road Railway Station. It closed in 1966 and the building was demolished in 1970.

Two tramlines ran from the centre of Luton through High Town from 1908 to 1932, mostly on single track lines with passing places. One line went along New Bedford Road to Wardown Park and the other along Midland Road and High Town Road to Round Green.

A cinema called The Picturedrome and High Town Electric Theatre, opened on High Town Road in 1912. It closed in 1937 but reopened as the Plaza. The building was used as a warehouse prior to demolition in 1979.

By 1922, High Town's development was largely complete. Frederic Street, Reginald Street and Clarendon Road had been laid out towards Pope's Meadow. High Town Road had housing up to its junction with Hitchin Road and nearby Ridgway Road followed on from North Street. The Norton College building had been converted to a hat works. Other industry included a thermo-electric works on a site between York Street and Cobden Street and a cardboard box works off Clarendon Road.