St Albans High Street

St Albans is a busy market town that has grown markedly over the last few years. St Albans High Street tops the shops in Market Place and St Peters Street. The whole area gets extremely busy with shoppers, especially on market days, Wednesday and Saturday. The market has existed since Saxon times and was re-established by the charter of 1553. Wednesdays use to be the cattle market but this has long since gone in favour of a car park. The service road that ran along side St Peter's Street has been paved over. Traffic still runs down the main road but the wide pavement has made things more pleasant for pedestrians.

St Albans is steeped in Roman history and home to the very imposing and impressive St Albans Abbey. People have been in the area for over 2,000 years; the Celts called it Verlamion, meaning: the settlement above the marsh. The name changed to Verulamium after the Roman conquest in AD43 and was one of the largest Roman towns in Britain.

St Albans has become a major commuter town for London with excellent rail links that offer a frequent service. There are hundreds of good pubs in the area and a myriad of shops to explore. We have grouped them into 4 main areas. From West to East, we start with George Street which runs into the High Street, not forgetting Heritage Close and the Village Arcade. Next we start at the North end of St Peter's Street down through Chequer Street and Holywell Hill. In the third table, we pick up the shops from the point St Peters Street splits, down into Market Place, Christopher Place and French Row, ending with the Clock Tower on the High St. The final area covered is the Maltings; however, there are still many more shops tucked away down Victoria Street, London Road and many others.

More can be found by following this link to St Albans or this link to the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban. A montage of our St Albans pictures are here for interest.