St Albans has a wide variety of distinctive buildings and structures from different periods of its history. You can read about some of them here; we will be adding more in future.
Just off Cottonmill Lane stand the remains of a building known variously as the Sopwell Nunnery, Sopwell House or Sopwell ruins. Ruins they certainly are, but not of the nunnery, nor the precursor of the present Sopwell House about a mile away. Excavations carried out in the 1960s discovered more about how the site has been used over the last nine hundred years.
The street memorials found on building in the Abbey parish in St Albans that commemorate the dead of the First World War form a unique feature of our city. Jon Mein discusses their origins.
Ever wondered about the origins of some well-known local place names, such as Harpenden, Berkhamstead, Letchworth, and Hertford? One of our earliest members, the Rev. H. Hall, delivered a paper to the Society on his interpretation of Hertfordshire place names on 17 June 1858.
The original purpose of Beech Bottom Dyke remains a source of speculation, but in the 19th century it was used in part as a rifle range.
The Society's contribution to the preservation of important historic buildings in the city.
Kingsbury Barn is one of an exceptional group of barns built to serve the estates of St Albans Abbey.
For hundreds of years, an Eleanor Cross stood in the market place of St Albans. Find out why, and what happened to it.
How Mrs Worley's fountain moved from Market Cross via Waterend Barn to Victoria Street.
How the Society acquired and dated the earliest known photograph of St Albans.
The old Mission Room was built to offer workers constructing the city's sewage system a more sober place than pubs in which to spend their spare time. But is there anything original in the current structure?
The chapel in Tyttenhanger House offers an intriguing glimpse into the character of its owner, Sir Henry Blount.
Dr Tony Berk discusses the unusual 'white' bricks used in the construction of the Corn Exchange, one of many built around the country following the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846.
Designed by George Smith and built in 1830, the Town Hall with its Neo-Classical style presented the inhabitants of St Albans with an edifice totally new to this country town.
The long history of Kingsbury Manor.
Everyone in St Albans is familiar with the name of the Westminster Lodge estate (which never included the land occupied by the eponymous leisure centre at the bottom of Holywell Hill). But what about its history?
The redoubtable Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, commissioned the Marlborough Almshouses which still stand on Hatfield Road.
From the time that Watling Street was diverted through Verulamium, to the construction of the new London Road, the streets of St Albans have had a major impact on its development.
