Napier Park is a suburb of

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

, in the south of the town, in

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

, England. It is roughly bounded by Harrowden Road to the north, the Midland Main Line to the south, Luton Airport to the east, and Devon Road to the West. Napier Park is currently under construction (as of 2018), and is one of the newest suburbs of the town.

History

Napier Park was built on the former site of the Vauxhall Motors Car Factory. The factory first operated on the site in 1905 after Vauxhall moved its operations from Vauxhall in London.

Vauxhall Motors Vauxhall Motors LimitedCompany No. 00135767. Incorporated 12 May 1914, name changed from Vauxhall Motors Limited to General Motors UK Limited on 16 April 2008, reverted to Vauxhall Motors Limited on 18 September 2017. () is a British car compa ...

was a major employer in Luton for a hundred years, with a commercial vehicle plant also operating in the

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the ...

area, an aftersales warehouse in

Tophill Tophill is a gently sloping area of land on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England, rising from sea level at Portland Bill to near HMP The Verne at its northern end. On Tophill are five of the settlements on the island: Easton, Weston, ...

, and the Vauxhall headquarters in Park Town. Production ceased on the car factory site in 2002, and the large area of the town was cleared and lay empty for over ten years. In 2014 planning permission to redevelop the site was granted, and construction started in the late 2010s. The new area was named Napier Park, after the Napier family, who lived in nearby

Luton Hoo Luton Hoo is an English country house and Estate (land), estate near Luton in Bedfordshire and Harpenden in Hertfordshire. Most of the estate lies within the civil parish of Hyde, Bedfordshire. The Old English language, Saxon word wikt:hoo#Etym ...

in the 17th and 18th century.

Local area

With construction in the area expected to continue into the 2020s, the area is intended for a mix of residential, leisure, and business use. There are a few notable buildings being constructed in the area, including a cluster of residential towers, the Napier Gateway Towers. The tallest of these, Beacon Tower, will top out at , making it Luton's tallest building at the time of construction. There will also be shops and restaurants in the south of the area around Napier Square. Bartlett Square is also in the south of the area, named after Sir Charles John Bartlett, director and chairman of Vauxhall Motors during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Bartlett Square is the location of Hart House, a listed building, originally built as the headquarters of

before they moved to Park Town. Bartlett Square is due to be redeveloped, with many large office buildings being built. Hart House is scheduled to be converted into a hotel. Bartlett Square is also the location of one of the new stations of the

Luton DART The Luton DART is a forthcoming automated guided people mover (light metro) which will connect Luton Airport Parkway station and Luton Airport in Bedfordshire, England. DART is an acronym for Direct Air-Rail Transit. It is currently under co ...

, a rail link under construction between

Luton Airport Parkway railway station Luton Airport Parkway railway station is on the Midland Main Line in England, serving south Luton and Luton Airport in Bedfordshire. It is situated in Park Town, Luton, and is down the line from London St Pancras between to the south and to ...

and London Luton Airport.

Politics

Napier Park is part of the

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

and Wigmore wards. The wards form part of the

parliamentary constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

Luton South Luton South is a constituency in Bedfordshire represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Rachel Hopkins, a member of the Labour Party. History This seat was created in 1983, primarily from the former seat of Luton ...

and the MP is Rachel Hopkins (

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

References

{{Luton Areas of Luton