A 17th Century Butcher's Shop

30-32 Market Place: A 17th Century Butcher’s Shop

A shop in St Albans, 30-32 Market Place, has been identified as a 17th Century butcher’s house and shop. Although very much modified over the years, the building’s original function is largely founded on the identification of the largest room as a butchery or cutting-room, entered from the alley, Sovereign Way, to the north. This room is unusually lofty with a high window, the still-existing moulding of the timber frame serving to date the whole.

The living quarters were above and alongside the shop, which faced the area of the Market Place known at that time as The Shambles or ‘place where meat was sold’.

For plans and details of the research involved see:

G.P.McSweeney & J.T.Smith, Hertfordshire Archaeology & History, Vol. 16, pp.75-81(2009)