IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Brand Street, HITCHIN, SG5 1LP

Well placed on a corner site. Santander are next door.

Originally constructed as a draper & tailor shop by John Thompson, the building was completed in 1834. It was built on the site of an earlier shop and dwelling which was owned by the Lucas family who were brewers and maltsters (one of whose daughters John Thompson had married) and who were Quakers from the earliest days of the movement and in whose house the first Hitchin Quaker meetings were held. The Thompsons were good friends of Matthew Arnold, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold poet and son of the famed Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby school. Matthew Arnold is known to have visited the house on several occasions. The Thompson family sold the building in 1902 and it was later acquired by the Hepworth tailoring chain and used by them until 1986. It has been occupied by Café Rouge for some ten years. The upper floors are now occupied by a chinese restaurant.

Looking towards Bancroft. High Street was originally called Cock Street and the name is preserved by the pub which is just to the left of the view. Interestingly, the pub site formed part of Shillington in Bedfordshire until an act of 1868 abolished such extra-parochial holdings.

The inn is in the High Street which was formerly known as Cock Street.

This was formerly the headquarters of the Quaker 'Hitchin' Bank. The Italianate edifice was constructed in 1841 to house the bank of Sharples, Exton and Lucas which was subsequently subsumed into Barclays (which was also originally a Quaker Bank).

This one is to be found outside a bank on the west side of the High Street, near the north-west corner of the Market Place. I feel pretty sure this is all wrought-iron, the work of a local blacksmith. It looks to me as if this little structure has been fabricated from at least seven components. The blade itself is mortised into the two main uprights; these are supported from behind by pieces with curly ends (a bit of showing-off on the part of the blacksmith). The curly elements are bolted into squat little supports which are recessed into the pavement. The bases of the main uprights could well be separate parts, matching the ones further back - in which case there are nine components in all.

A semi-pedestrianised street which allows vehicular access to the town square.

The camera lucida, which was patented in 1806, is an optical device often used by artists to sketch a subject. It superimposes an image on the drawing surface allowing faithful rendering of the subject by the artist. It is reported that the pioneering photographer, Fox Talbot, tried his hand at using the camera lucida in 1833 but was unhappy with the result. This encouraged him to seek a means to "cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably"...