Quirky St Albans

St Albans is famous for its Roman origins and cathedral. The medieval market town grew up around the cathedral, and rapidly expanded in the late nineteenth century once the railways arrived and industries were attracted to the city. Proximity to London encouraged further population growth in the following century. Quirky St Albans explores the more unusual side of the city’s history, its fascinating characters and unexpected places and objects, including a Roman mosaic kept hidden under a theatre carpet, the prison gateway in the TV series Porridge which is today the registry office, the pair of giant eyeballs paraded annually to commemorate the death of St Alban, a cannonball from the Wars of the Roses found near a pub, the racehorse owner and pub landlord who brough the steeplechase to St Albans and much, much more.Quirky St Albans celebrates the unusual and often strange history of St Albans and its characters over the years. This fascinating insight into St Albans will be of interest to all those who want to know more about the city’s quirky history.