Victoria Street

Image: © Ian Capper Taken: 3 Dec 2011

The upper end of Victoria Street, looking towards its junction with Chequer Street/St Peter’s Street, with the Town Hall beyond. Victoria Street follows the line of a much older route, a narrow lane called Shropshereslane (later Shropshire Lane), first mentioned in 1381. At its junction with St Peter’s Street stood the Castle Inn, in the entrance to which the Duke of Somerset was killed in the First Battle of St Albans in 1455. By the 1830s the lane had been renamed Sweet Briar Lane, but remained largely undeveloped. Development did not take place until the 19th century and it was renamed Victoria Street in 1876 (initially Victoria Road at the eastern end), by which time it had become the access route from the new Midland Railway station, opened in 1868, which gave the town direct rail access to London. The Town Hall was built in 1831 and is grade II* listed – see www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1296135. The buildings on the right date from the early 20th century and are all locally listed. No.1 (on the corner in the background) has an unusual turret. It used housed a branch of the National Provincial Bank (which on merger with the Westminster Bank in 1970 became part of the National Westminster Bank). The building now houses a branch of the Skipton Building Society. No.9, housing an estate agent’s, has an interesting gable.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0