Geograph - photograph every grid square

The Fire Research Station (FRS) was a development of the Fire Offices' Committee (FOC) Testing Station, erected at Borehamwood in 1935. A joint venture between government and the insurance industry, it was set up in late 1947 with staff from the FOC and from the Building Research Station (BRS) although run as an independent body. The site expanded with major building works in 1958, 1960, late 1960s and mid-1970s. At the latter date FRS was merged with BRS and the Forest Products Laboratory at Princes Risborough to form the Building Research Establishment (BRE). During the 1980s staff numbers were reduced by government cutbacks and FRS was moved to the main BRE site at Garston, N. Watford, in 1994. The insurance-run Loss Prevention Certification Board continued to run the site until the mid-2000s, when taken over by BRE (privatised in 1997) it too was moved to Garston. The site has been cleared of all the original buildings and developed for housing.
Although having an international reputation, FRS was a little-known part of Borehamwood, except for those who worked there! These pictures show something of the site shortly before FRS moved out in 1994. They are split between TQ1995 and TQ1996 as the site crossed the grid line between these two squares.