St. Albans

The next day after visiting Salisbury and Stonehenge I made my way to St. Albans. I was kind of worn out from the previous day but St. Albans is only a 20 minute train ride from the Cricklewood train station in London. Nevertheless, it seems like a world away once you arrive. Much calmer and more relaxed than London. I made my way to the center of town from the train station, which was actually a bit of a hike. From there I walked to the city's famous clock tower. It was built in the early 1400's. It was alright, but really not all that impressive. Although I must admit that I didn't actually go inside. After that I walked to the Cathedral.

The Cathedral was rebuilt over an early Saxon site after the Norman conquest, starting sometime around 1077. As you can see in a couple of the photos below, its built out of a real hodge podge of materials. A lot of the structure is made out of flint, which must be pretty common because lots of older buildings were made of the same. The Normans also used a lot of the original Saxon material and Roman bricks. Near St Albans was the site of the third largest Roman settlement in Britain, named Verulamium.

St Albans Cathedral is the resting place of, surprisingly enough, Saint Alban. Britain's first English martyr (there are three total), St. Alban had been a Roman living in Verulamium and converted to Christianity. As punishment, he was decapitated on a hill outside Verulamium which is now the site of the Cathedral.

St. Albans is a beautiful cathedral that's somewhat off the beaten path. It definitely makes for an easy day trip from London. You could probably even cover everything in an afternoon. The below photo is of a wall painting that was rediscovered in the 1800's. It had been whitewashed over during the Reformation. While I was at the Cathedral there was actually some kind of service going on in the far section. You can definitely tell that this is still a very active church and less of a museum like some of the other cathedrals and abbeys I've visited. Historically it had been a site for pilgrims and it seemed like the Church still very much catered to pilgrims traveling to St. Alban's shrine. I didn't take any photos of the shrine as we were asked not to.

After the Cathedral I headed to the site of the Roman city, Verulamium. Almost all the buildings had been taken apart for their building materials, so now its just a large 100 acre park. As you can see in the below picture, it's really pretty. If you lived in London or nearby it would be a real nice way to get out of the city.

On the edge of the park is the Verulamium museum. This is a small museum covering the Roman history of the area with some of the artifacts that have been found nearby. Its a nice little museum and worth a visit if you're going to go to St. Albans.

Near the museum is Roman Theatre. It is the best preserved Roman theatre in Britain, but as you can see from the below picture, there still isn't much there. They have found the foundations of some townhouses that were alongside the Roman Watling Street, which was interesting. It was just kind of neat to see the layout of an average sized Roman home.


As you can probably tell, St Albans isn't a mind blowing, spirit altering trip (unless, maybe if you're a pilgrim). But it was a nice place to spend a Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately not much is left of the Roman settlement but I have to admit, they do a very good job of presenting what remains. If you were visiting London and looking for a day trip, I could think of better places to go. But if you have the time, it is a nice place and could probably really be done in half a day.