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Victoria Street, ST. ALBANS, AL1 3JB

Built in 1880 and locally listed. The terracotta plaques across the front are of Sir Humphry Davy, Sir Francis Bacon and William Hogarth, representing science, literature and art. The building now houses a doctors' surgery.

Pub in a former Public Library

Built in 1911 as a Carnegie Library. Carnegie Libraries were part funded by the Scottish-American businessman/philanthropist, among the conditions being that his contribution was matched by the community in which the library was built, who also had to provide the land - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library. The building here was designed by local architect F G W Dudley, and followed the typical Carnegie formula of a grand entrance accesse by a flight of steps. It is locally listed. It continued to house the City's public library until replaced in the 1980s by a new one in the Maltings development on the opposite side of Victoria Street. It is now an O'Neills Bar.

Built in 1911, on the site of a public baths hall. The building is locally listed.

One of a number of foundation stones on the Salvation Army Citadel in Victoria Street - see Image This one was laid by Councillor Samuel Ryder, far better known as the instigator of the Ryder Cup, considered the greatest team competition in golf.

Looking in the direction of the Town Hall.

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.

Bank building in Chequer Street, dating from 1914 originally for the Capital and Counties Bank (which was acquired by Lloyds Bank in 1918), designed by Edward Maufe.

Built in 1911. The architect was Oswald Archer, architect to the Salvation Army. The elevation is repeated in his design for the citadel in Worthing - see Image