20 Apr 2025
St Albans’ iconic medieval Clock Tower has re-opened for the 2025 season, offering unparalleled views over the city centre and beyond – if you can manage the 93 steps to the top!
St Albans Mayor Cllr Jamie Day carried out the traditional Good Friday opening ceremony, accompanied by volunteers from St Albans and Hertfordshire Architectural and Archaeological Society and St Albans Civic Society, who ensure it is open to the public each year.
On a clear day, from the top of the Tower you can see as far as the M25, Dunstable Downs, Gorhambury and Luton Airport, but it’s the opportunity to see over the rooftops of the city centre and beyond which make it so worthwhile.
This year new signs were unveiled on the parapet giving information about the Tower and its history. They complement others around the edge which explain what can be seen in each direction.
Built in 1405, the Clock Tower is now the only surviving medieval town belfry in England, and over the centuries has been a shop and a government telegraph station during the Napoleonic wars.
Gabriel, the Tower’s original one ton bell, remains in place, and in past times would have sounded the Angelus and the evening Curfew. It would have also rung out an alarm in case of “fire or fray”, such as at the First Battle of St Albans in 1455.
The present clock dates from 1866, and uses a mechanism invented by Lord Grimthorpe, who not only restored the Cathedral but also designed the mechanism used by the clock for Big Ben at Westminster.
The Tower, which is designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, will be open every weekend and Bank Holiday until Sunday September 28 from 10.30am to 5pm.
