Archive Revealed: Historical Photos of St. Albans from the Late 1880s
By StAlbansRobin | Friday, March 05, 2010, 15:17
Today I came across some facinating historical images of St. Albans, many of which have probably never been seen by the public. The images, mostly taken in the late 1800s, include street scenes, images of the Clock Tower, the Abbey whilst being restored, St. Peter's Church and many other local sites of interest.
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St. Albans Abbey During Restoration (1880 - 1883). Photo uploaded and captioned by Andy Lawrence (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/47716665@N02/4398982681/)
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Town Hall Photographed between 1874 and 1879. Photo captioned and shared by Andy Lawrence (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/47716665@N02/4398955453/)
They were painstakingly scanned and titled by Andy Lawrence, who told me the story of how they came into his hands:
"They came from a friend of my mums, a lady who is 82 and she has known
of these photos since she was a girl. Her father was a local builder
working for Blow and Peters, who used to have a yard in London Road.
Apparently he was demolishing a building in St Albans in the 30s and
found them in a timber wall, which building it was is not known.
They were stashed away in a box in the loft for many years and came up
in conversation because of some early aerial photos of St Albans which
I have and date back to the 1920s. This is the first time they have
been seen for donkeys’ years.
I have found some ‘exactly the same’ images published in old books
dating back to 1905 and 1920, but most are never before published."
To view more of these wonderful photographs, visit Andy Lawrence's Flickr stream.
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