Saint Albans

Saint Albans is an ancient city in Hertfordshire, England, located within convenient commuting distance of central London. The city began as a pre-Roman settlement named Verlamion, under the Ancient British. It was later the first major town on the old Roman road of Watling Street, by which point it was known as the Roman city of Verulamium. But the settlement gained its current name in reverence to the first British Christian martyr, who was beheaded in the settlement in circa 324 AD. The abbey that was subsequently founded was one of the earliest and most important in England. It is the location where the first draft of the Magna Carta was written. The adjoining Saint Albans School, is also a very historic building, incorporating the 14th century Abbey Gateway. The school was itself founded in AD 948. It is the only school in the English-speaking world to have educated a Pope (Adrian IV).

Saint Albans developed as a rural market town and a coaching stage due to its location. It still retains a large number of older inns datng from the Tudor period. It now serves largely as a commuter base and as a popular tourist destination, offering good shopping prospects, a choice of holiday accommodation and a large number of traditional family pubs and restaurants, including The Fighting Cocks, which is one of the oldest public houses in England.