To spot St Albans Market, look ahead for a lively street lined with colorful stalls, fluttering bunting overhead, and crowds of shoppers weaving between racks of clothes and bustling merchants-it's impossible to miss the wall of cheerful activity stretching down the high street!
Now, step into the vibrant heart of St Albans, where you’re sampling a tradition over 1,150 years in the making! This isn’t just any market-it’s the oldest English street market that’s still held on its original site, and its story is bursting with drama, charm, and the occasional disgruntled monk. It all began around the year 860, when Wulsin, the sixth abbot of St Albans Abbey, cooked up the idea to earn a few coins for the abbey and turn a little gate-side trading into the main attraction. Picture it: the smell of fresh bread, the creak of wooden carts, traders shouting prices and locals haggling for the best deals. Even back then, there was always a rumor that the fish shambles were the loudest-just don’t tell the butchers!
Over the centuries, the market stretched along this very road, with traders crammed into special spots depending on their goods-meats at the Fleshambles, fish at the Fish Shambles, leather at the Leather Shambles, and a wool market so full you could lose a sheep in the crowd if you weren’t careful. Royal intrigue peeked in too. Henry II and Richard I made it official business that the Abbey controlled the market, and things sometimes got a bit... well, medieval. In 1297, John of Berkhamsted was caught in a bread and ale scandal. The punishment? A market day in the pillory, just an hour before opening until long after closing. Talk about getting bad reviews in public!
By the 1700s, the market had gained so much prestige and income that the town threatened prosecutions for traders who tried to dodge the tolls. Market days were busy and noisy-Wednesday and Saturday, just as today-while the great Market Cross stood proudly until 1810, a beacon for farmers and shoppers. You’d hear the ring of the market bell at 10:00 to signal that the freemen of the town could start selling, and soon the air would fill with a tapestry of voices, from straw-hatted farmers to bonneted ladies peddling their wares.
Come the nineteenth century, things only got livelier. Over 45,000 carts and a thundering 260,000 animals would pass the tollgates each year. Imagine the clatter, the lowing of cattle, and the clip-clop of hooves as busy townsfolk dodged-hopefully-not too much manure! The market kept up with the times, swapping stalls for shops, and expanding with a new Corn Exchange in 1857. It’s been a magnet for royalty too; Queen Victoria herself noted the happy crowds when she passed through in 1841. And if you think things got raucous, they rather did: women’s suffrage campaigners chalked news of their rallies on the pavement, only for the council to outlaw such scribbling in 1911.
Tough times came in the twentieth century, with fewer cattle and less grain, but the market held firm, only closing briefly during the pandemic in 2020 when the streets went eerily silent and the regulars might have wondered if the only thing left trading was the wind. But no market spirit stays down for long! Just a week later, food traders returned with their own stalls, the buzz grew, and, in a twist of fate, the Saturday market soon had more stalls than ever.
Today, this market is a living patchwork of old and new. From sizzling street food to craft treasures, it’s scooped up the title of Best Large Outdoor Market in 2024. There’s traditional fare twice weekly, with extra joy on Sundays-from antique troves to vegan feasts. As you stroll, imagine a town where trading has shaped life’s rhythm for well over a millennium. St Albans Market is more than a place-it’s an ongoing festival, an open-air play full of characters, and a living link to centuries past.
So, take a good sniff of frying onions, listen to the bargaining buzz, and watch for a stall that might just be as old as the Abbey itself. Who knows, if you listen closely, you might even hear the distant ring of that old market bell.
