While it was many years before the railways came to St Albans, the opening of the main London to Birmingham line in 1837 had an immediate effect on the long-distance stage coach traffic through the town.

The 1839 Pigot’s directory records

"The inns, of which there are several respectable ones, both posting and commercial, are supported in a considerable degree by the influx of passengers; but their prosperity has suffered a material diminution from the opening of the London and Birmingham railway - one inn alone, it is said, having lost the stabling of two hundred and fifty horses since this modern mode of conveyance has been brought into operation."

The 1851 Post Office Directory records