With Easter just a few weeks away, it won't be long before the streets of the city centre are packed with tourists flocking from across the country and beyond to enjoy all St Albans has to offer - but what sort of first impression might they receive? Aside from the traffic...
After years of criticism dating back to the pandemic, St Albans district council has finally unveiled an action plan which hopes to restore the city's beloved Charter Market to its former glory - but is it too late? Live music, theatrical performances, performing arts and a fashion show are among the...
They've been mothballed since the start of the Covid pandemic, but now any hopes of a phoenix-like resurrection by the Charter Market's traditional stalls may have been quashed by the decision to melt them down for scrap metal. Even though the debut of 80 promised replacement stalls has been indefinitely postponed...
A year after councillors announced the closure of public toilets in Spicer Street and Verulamium Park, there remain limited options if you want to spend a penny in the city centre. It was back in February 2022 that SADC's public realm committee revealed plans to close Verulamium Park Causeway toilets due...
Ripped from their homelands by a fear of violence or death, then thrust into a strange new country where barriers of language and culture keep them isolated, it takes a remarkable person to use these experiences to create works of art and verse. Yet a handful of asylum seekers living in...
Back in July 2022 a new in-depth report revealed a disproportionate amount of black men were being stopped and searched in the St Albans district. Of the 609 stop-searches which took place between April and October 2021, 52 involved men who were black or from ethnic minority groups. When you compare this...
The introduction of fees for residents at Verulamium Museum might have gone under the radar in the wake of the backlash against car parking charges and the closure of Abbey View Golf Course and athletics pavilion, but people are now realising the implications of the proposal. From April SADC wants to...
For Harpenden-based author Jonathan Stroud, the experience of seeing his supernatural book series Lockwood & Co transformed into a Netflix TV show was one of the stand-out moments of his life. “In your life you have a few moments where you know everything slightly shifts – getting married, when your child...
Almost five years since it was first announced, a cross-agency programme to revitalise the River Ver and Verulamium Lake has made some substantial moves forward. The multi-million pound Revitalising the RiVer project is a partnership between the district and county councils, the Environment Agency (EA) and Affinity Water, focused on returning...
Born in London Colney and educated at St Albans School, former comics laureate Dave Gibbons is celebrating half a century in the industry with the release of his anecdotal autobiography Confabulation. The book charts his path through fanzines and underground comics to working with mainstream publishers like DC Thompson, IPC, Marvel...
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