IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Holywell Hill, ST. ALBANS, AL1 1HG

In the 1890s Samuel Ryder started a seed business in his garden shed at his home in Folly Lane, St Albans, selling seeds in penny packets which he sent by post, using St Albans' transport links. As the business expanded, he had to move premises a few times, ending up in a site on Holywell Hill, which he bought in 1903 and on which he had built this building in 1911. It was designed by Percival Blow, and built by local builders Miskin. Eventually the company was taken over by Suttons Seeds, and for a while the building, along with the adjacent Exhibition Hall (see Image), served as the Post Office sorting office for St Albans (hence the large postbox outside). Since the 1990s it has been occupied by Comfort Hotels. The building is grade II listed - see www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1251301. Samuel Ryder also co-founded with his brother the herbal business Heath and Heather, which had a prominent warehouse just south of St Albans City Station, the business eventually being sold to Holland and Barrett. But Samuel Ryder was much more than a very successful businessman. He was a local councillor between 1903 and 1916, and was elected Mayor of St Albans in 1905. He was also a very religious man, acting as a deacon of the local congregational church (see Image), to which he contributed part of the building cost. But his most lasting gift was in the world of golf, a sport he took up at the age of 49 for health reasons, playing at Verulam Golf Club where he was three times captain. Through his company Heath and Heather he sponsored a number of professional golf tournaments, before in 1926 proposing a challenge match between the USA and Great Britain & Ireland. The cup he presented for the winner was the Ryder Cup, still the greatest team competition in the golfing world. He died on 2 January 1936, aged 77, and is buried in Hatfield Road Cemetery (see Image).

It looks very blanc on the outside.

Grade II* listed range of late 15th century timber-framed buildings on Holywell Hill http://www.whiteharthotelstalbans.co.uk/

Late 15th century range of Grade II Listed buildings. The hotel website claims it dates back to 1470. It probably started as a guest house for the nearby Abbey. In 1535 it was known as Hartshorn and leased by the Abbot of St Albans to John and Elizabeth Brooke. South of the carriageway is the oldest part probably incorporating an inn built in 1500, the range along the street being built in the 17th Century. North of the carriageway is late 16th century. Simon Fraser, the 11th Lord Lovat stayed in the hotel on his way to be become the last person to be beheaded in England in 1747. In 1750 the owner was Edward Langford who became mayor in 1752. It later passed to Mary his wife. The building had new fenestration in the 18th century when it was fully plastered. The plaster was removed early in the 20th century revealing the frame.

See here for a view of the front https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6722473

This looked to me like a former post office; Ian Capper's excellent description given to Image confirms that it was once a sorting office, but originally a commercial headquarters. Listed grade 2 (list entry number 1251301).

The postbox is outside a former sorting office Image

Grade II Listed offices built for Samuel Ryder (of Ryder Cup fame) by Miskins to a Percival C. Blow design 1910-11. In St Albans Museums, ‘Talking Buildings’ project, 2016, Sue Lobatto tells us that 27 and 29 Holywell Hill replaced an early coaching inn called The Bull shown by a deed dating from 1548 and in the Parish Records of St Peter’s, stood on the site before becoming a private residence called the Priory. It seems this building was demolished prior to the building of Ryder's offices. The 1872 map shows trees in the location of 29 so I assume the Bull Inn must have been under No.27. The oldest directory of St Albans I have, 1855, has no Bull in St Albans. Ryder and Sons were seed and bulb merchants and under the foundations is a Bottle containing packets of seeds, a seed catalogue and a history of the firm. The building cost approximately £6,000 and came with a magnificent oak and mahogany hall and staircase leading up to Samuel Ryder’s office. Eventually the company was taken over by Suttons Seeds and later the building served as the Post Office sorting office from about 1971 to 1991/2 leased from St Albans Council. CI Group then used it as offices and spent more than £15,000 on refurbishing the severely neglected building. In 1999 the newly refurbished building opened as the Comfort Hotel then Clarion Collection Hotel both now part of Quality Hotels Ltd.

These buildings were designed by Percival Blow for Ryder & Sons, seed and bulb merchants. The offices, to the left of the photo, date from 1910-11 and are described in the official listing at the Historic England site as being in a 'Combination of Arts and Crafts and Wrenaissance styles' (Wrenaissance refers to a style inspired by the arts of the Renaissance and also the rather later architecture of Sir Christopher Wren). The facade features carved stone reliefs depicting rather idealised scenes of ploughing, sowing and harvesting. The offices were built for Samuel Ryder, seed merchant, mayor of St Albans and the man after whom the golfing Ryder Cup, which he donated, was named. The building subsequently belonged to Sutton Seeds, then to the Post Office, and is now a hotel. Many details of the fine interior have apparently survived these changes of use and ownership; see the listing on the Historic England site https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1251301?section=official-list-entry . The conservatory and seed hall, the white building beyond the offices, now a cafe restaurant, followed around 1930. The structure is built of brick and reinforced concrete with a steel frame and a glazed roof. It too is a listed building, described as being in a classical style with Art Deco style glazing; the listing can be found at the Historic England site https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103013?section=official-list-entry .