Town Hall at St. Alban's in Hertfordshire

The Town Hall at St. Alban's in Hertfordshire c.1937 [Author's Collection]. Map extract from Ordnance Survey Sheet 160 London N.E. OS One-Inch Map Depicted 1951, Published 1958. Crown Copyright. Reproduced with kind permission of the National Library of Scotland under the Creative Commons Attribution licence.

The Town Hall at St. Alban's c.1937

This inter-war view of the Town Hall was captured from a position close to the premises occupied, in recent times, by the Natwest Bank and Waterstone's. By the time of this image, the motor car had already started to blight the city centre. It is many years since the building served a civic role. In the 2020s the old Town Hall housed the Museum and Art Gallery. It had been the tourist information office for a period. The Neo-Classical-styled Town Hall, designed by George Smith, replaced an older Town Hall and Session House on the corner of Upper Dagnall Street, held in which were "the Quarter Sessions for the Borough and Liberty of St. Alban's, as were also the meetings of the Corporation. The lower part was used as the Borough Gaol, or Counter as it was called, the prisoners in which were visible from Dagnall Street as they stood behind the bars of the lock-up." ¹ The site of the new Town Hall was formerly occupied by three almshouses for poor widows, removed in 1829. It was in May of that year that the Council and Magistrates invited tenders for the construction of the new building. They did not mess about in those days and the first County Ball was held in the new Town Hall on New Year's Eve 1830. Typically, it was only the likes of the Earl of Verulam, Lord Grimston and James Gape, along with a numerous circle of the haut ton who were invited.²

References
1. Kent, E. Stanley [1930] "St. Alban's In The Early Nineteenth Century" in "St. Alban's and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society Transactions 1929" London : Gibbs and Bamforth Ltd. p.241
2. "St. Alban's Ball" : Morning Post; January 3rd, 1831. p.2.

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