THE VANISHING OF OLD ST ALBANS

 A PLEA FOR THE PICTURESQUE

 

Things haven't changed over the years and the following words from the long letter by F. G. Kitton urging the people of St Albans to sign a petition to help save the old shop building at one end of the Market Place.  He wrote:

 

Those who appreciate the old-world aspect of St Albans will, I am confident, do their utmost to oppose the present-day tendency of giving an ugly, up-to-date appearance to our ancient thoroughfares.

Artists, antiquaries, and admirers of the picturesque elements in St. Albans are not unfrequently startled by alarming reports of the impending destruction of familiar landmarks - cherished relics of a bygone age - or of the demolition of some interesting specimen of domestic architecture, of which a few striking examples happily still exist in our highways and byways. As briefly mentioned in the last issue of the "Herts Advertiser," the building now threatened is one which must be well known to every inhabitant of St Albans, standing as it does in what is perhaps the most prominent position in the town. The block of tenements, of which this particular house forms the northern extremity, is rightly considered as the most picturesque relic of medieval St. Albans, and the old plaster gable, with its overhanging upper storey fronting the Market Place and St. Peter's-street, imparts to this portion of the town a character at once so quaint and beautiful that its destruction would prove most lamentable from an artistic and archaeological standpoint. ..... [Click on cutting for larger image]