The Little Books 1

 In the author's book collection are a number of what might be termed "little books" about St Albans: small format slimlines containing a number of photographs.  Many are loosely themed – the Cathedral, St Peter's Street, churches, shops and so on.  Others are collected as "then and now" so that readers are able to compare scenes over a period of time.  The question to be asked is, how well represented are the eastern districts of the city?  While there exist quantities of subjects taken in the inner city streets, alleys and courts, it is certain that few photographers have ventured further than the distance between two consecutive bus stops in their search for enticing material.  So how to prove that assertion.

This week I took from the shelf Maurice Ferrara's little book St Albans Past & Present, published in 1982 (ISBN0950735221).  At the time of writing six copies are listed for sale under www.abebooks.co.uk.

The front cover has an engaging period pic of the Clock Tower, High Street and Cathedral Tower; a Clock Tower and Market Place monotone drawing also occupied the inner title page.  So that probably sets the tone.  It is not until page 32 that we break out of the 1835 town boundary and experience the first image in the remote yonder: a World War One training camp in London Road's Cunningham lower slopes. The second eastern photo shows the operational prison, but neither join in the book's design intention to show more recent versions of these two locations.

Fleetville's turn comes from page 58 onwards with a pair of images of The Crown (the first with the well-known tree and island), and a  street scene of Hatfield Road between Blandford and Glenferrie roads.  There follows the deceptive comparison between a carless Glenferrie Road and its more modern car tunnel equivalent.  Then there is the sixty years separating versions of Bycullah Terrace, Hatfield Road (including a rare inclusion of the Co-operative Store which replaced the former Ballito Hosiery Mill).

We are also rewarded with then and now pictures of the Nicholson coat factory in Sutton Road, the first including what might be the full contingent of employees at the time, and a little indirect evidence of the field opposite (now Campfield Road) which was still used as a  recreation field before the opening of Fleetville Recreation Ground now called Fleetville Park.

It is rewarding to see once more the often-seen photograph of pedestrians walking along the middle of Hatfield Road down towards the Beaumont Avenue junction – and the empty spaces beyond where houses would shortly be constructed; the modern version is surprisingly quiet at the same location, with no more than four cars visible!

There known to be east least two published images of troops making their way along Hatfield Road towards their training ground at Oaklands, or perhaps to the grounds of Hatfield House.  It is good to discover the version selected for publication is the lesser known of the two.  But its partner is not a more recent version of the same location, but a 1908 photograph of a carcass-hung frontage of Aberdeen House, the butcher shop then managed by Mr Steabben.

One more pair shows one of the most popular shots – in fact the only image of the Camp District in the book – of the Camp Hill hamlet.  Its modern equivalent reminds us just how long ago this little book was published (1982) for the Rubber Works still occupies the opposite site of the road; the Dexter development is still a few years away.

Near the end of this collection are are two pairs of pictures of Sandpit Lane which together demonstrate just how much east end growth has affected streetscapes at Hall Heath and Newgates.  Fortunately the author has found a glorious circus photograph, unfortunately not taken in any of the eastern locations where circuses so often pitched up.  But the circus is, at least, represented as a popular form of entertainment in the first half of the twentieth century.

Finally an open space pair shows scenes within Clarence Park.

Added pages include a sample front page of the Herts Advertiser & St Albans Times, and of a short-lived mid-week paper called the St Albans Clock Tower.  In 1906 there were just 135 telephone subscribers covered the whole of St Albans – just five of them in the eastern districts.  The entire directory fits on a single page of this book!

And that is it.  Nothing from Oaklands, nor Marshalswick.  No farms or detached hamlets were represented.  Either photographers were unadventurous or their work has not survived.