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St. Peters Street, ST. ALBANS, AL1 3LF

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.

Near the junction with Victoria Street & Town Hall

Built around the turn of the 19th/20th century for the then Westminster Bank. Grade II listed - for listing particulars see www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103052.

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.

Looking along St Peters Street.

A loose model of a steam engine bedecked with Christmas lights, as part of the city's Christmas decorations, situated in front of the former town hall at the head of St Peter's Street, now the city museum. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the challenge was taking the photo without children sitting in it and parents taking photos of said children.

Pub in a former Public Library

A seasonal contribution by the St Albans BID (Business Improvement District).

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.