The Saracen's Head & The Bull

Two 'Lost Inns' of St Albans

By Gerard McSweeney

   A reference was made in St Peter’s churchwardens’ accounts (1660) to the Saracen’s Head, situated opposite the church of that name. Although such a named inn is known to have existed in Holywell Hill in that year, the one referred to here appears not to have been noted in subsequent records of St Albans.            

    A search of documentary sources produced a series of deeds from which it was possible to draw up a sequence of eight properties on the west side of Bowgate, the old name for the north end of St Peter’s St.            

   These now-demolished buildings stretched from the Pemberton Almshouses to a point beyond Ivy House, which later (ca.1719) replaced the Saracen’s Head.  The illustration shows the Almshouses on the right and Ivy House at the far end. Another inn, The Bull, also known as The Black Bull, was also established as being one of the tenements in this stretch of buildings. The position of this inn had been mistakenly assigned in recent histories of St Albans to various other sites. 

   Full details in: G P McSweeney, “Saracen’s Head & The Bull, Bowgate, St Albans”, Hertfordshire Archaeology & History, Vol. 14, p.153ff. (2004-5)