St.Albans – "an England in miniature"
 
Runs:  Sundays: May 13th, September 9th and October 14th
at 10 am from West HampsteadTube Stop
 
Meet at 10 am just outside the exit of
West HampsteadTube Station
 
The most fascinating small city in England is just 20 minutes from London. St. Albans is England in miniature, an essence of England. You can stand on the bank of its little river, the Ver, and suddenly feel yourself touched, saddened by the great passage of time  - Romans, and Saxons, and Normans, and Lancastrians rode across this stream, galloped up that hill, and disappeared into the centuries. And the same goes for the little town itself (little town, hell, long, long ago this was the most important city in Roman Britain!) - here you see it all - from the Legions of Julius Caesar to the dynasty of the Churchills. These streets are corridors in the vale of time. Here's the only Roman theatre in Britain; here's the oldest street market in this sceptered isle - it dates back to the Saxons; round this corner there's a 600-year-old Moot hall; round that one a clutch of mediaeval and Tudor coaching inns; hard by, a rare curfew clock tower; up these lanes a sprinkling of half-timbered Elizabethan houses; over there, streets and buildings that are essays in Georgian England; here, a Victorian prison. Let alone all sorts of hidden, curious places and things - and a skein of enthralling history. Not to put too fine a point on it, St. Albans is London's best kept secret! Okay, here's the photo-essay.

 Okay, who's for a "grab", a "soundbite"...here's Alison before that rare clock tower...

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  In the Summer 2012 London Walks programme –
which kicks in on May 1st and runs through October 31st –
we go to St. Albans on:
 
Sunday, May 13th
Sunday, September 9th
Sunday, October 14th

 Meet Alison or Hilary at 10 am just outside the exit of West HampsteadTube.

 Tariff:  c. £10

And looking WAAAAAY ahead, we always do, just a few days before Christmas, an annual Christmas season trip to St. Albans. That one's Ding Dong Merrily on High! because it's timed to coincide with St. Albans' Christmas street market – the oldest, longest, bestest traditional Christmas street market in England!