The Vineyards, located in the centre of the old village, was once a fine Georgian house set in attractive wooded grounds which later became a hotel. It was demolished in the mid 1960s prior to the advent of conservation legislation, to make way for the construction of the Vineyards shopping centre and later the Marrable House office block, both constructed with a 'scale, form, layout and architecture' that Chelmsford Council now considers to 'jar with its historic surroundings'. Despite this, the shopping centre continues to thrive and, since refurbishment in the 2000s, the flats above are highly regarded and sought-after properties. Marrable House, a six-storey office block was described at the time of its construction in 1968 as 'one of the worst examples of town and country planning in the country' and subsequently once voted as one of England's ugliest buildings, was demolished in the Spring of 2016, and was replaced with a 53-flat development made up of one to two bedrooms in two buildings named Heron Gate. The development was completed in May 2018. A corner of the grounds of the former Vineyards mansion were retained and form a green area to the west of the Vineyards development. A library was also opened on the western edge of the development in September 1981, replacing the former building in Bell Street.