IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mount Pleasant, ST. ALBANS, AL3 4QU

Street in central St Albans with a raised pavement and a fine selection of old houses.

17th century Grade II Listed timber framed house. Kelly's 1899, 1902 and 1908 lists 'Mardell George, carman, 92 Fishpool street'. A carman was a driver of horse-drawn vehicles for transporting goods, often for railways. Also sometimes someone who drove horse-drawn trams was called a carman. Tree-Ring Service’s dendrochronological analysis of oak timbers here in 2012 dated them to be felled in winter 1708/9. Nat Alcock & Cathy Tyers (2013) 'TREE-RING DATE LISTS 2013' tells us "One bay survives of what was probably at least a two-bay, two-storey timber-framed building. The roof is of clasped-purlin construction, with raking queen struts, its end gable facing the street. The principal rafters do not diminish and no wind braces were evident. Little of the wall framing is visible, but the posts are not jowled and one straight brace survives in the end-gable wall. The joists are orientated on edge."

Grade II* Listed former 17th century Manor House with considerable alterations in the 18th and 19th centuries. An Elizabethan plaster ceiling inscribed IG 1586 suggest the incorporation of an earlier building. In Edith's Streets blog it is claimed the original house here was built in 1585 by John Gape a tanner on medieval foundations which can be traced back to the 11th century. However A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 2. Originally published in 1908 Informs us John Gape who was mayor of St. Albans in 1564, 1572 and 1579 may have built it in 1568 that is carved on some of the oak ceilings of the house. (1568 is possibly a unintended transposition of 1586). This house probably built about 1668 was occupied by the Gape family descendants up until it was purchased by the current owners. It was converted into a hotel in the early 1960s by the Newling Ward family.

The bottom end of Lower Dagnall Street with Mount Pleasant in the background.

In the grounds of St Michaels hotel St Albans.

Fishpool Street in the Hertfordshire city of St Albans.

No. 32. C16. 2 storeys, 2 windows. Very steep, tiled roof with central chimney stack. Overhanging, plastered 1st floor has 2 sash windows with glazing bars in slightly projecting, moulded frames. Grade II listed.

Once the main road from London to the north west, following the diversion of the former Watling Street up Holywell Hill and then down to St Michaels in the 9th or 10th century. Following the building of Verulam Road by Thomas Telford in 1826, it lost this status but still served as the road out towards Hemel Hempstead, and when road numbers were introduced in 1922 it former part of the A414 Hemel Hempstead to Chelmsford road. This role in turn ceased in the 1950s or so following the link from Batchwood Drive to Bluehouse Hill and the transfer of that number to Catherine Street, and Fishpool Street is now a quiet back road. Many of the buildings here are grade II listed, including the three on the right of the photo, nos 50 (the plaster fronted building), 52 (with the doorway and 54, all dating from the 18th century with earlier origins - see www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1103143, www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1172835 and www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1347128 respectively for listing particulars; also the building in the background, Kitchener's Mead, dating from the late 18th century - see www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1296453. All other buildings are locally listed. On the wall of no 52 can be seen a World War 1 Street Memorial (see Image for close up).

See description below. This one is in Fishpool Street, commemorating the dead of that road. It was dedicated in April 1921. For context see Image