Latest / UK Travel Planning / Day Trips from London – St Albans: History, Food & Hidden Gems

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Day Trips from London – St Albans: History, Food & Hidden Gems · UK Travel Planning

• 0:00
  Tracy Collins: Just 20 minutes from London by train, St Albans offers Roman ruins, a stunning cathedral, medieval streets, bustling markets and one of the best foodie scenes outside the capital.
• 0:09
  Tracy Collins: It's the ideal day trip.
• 0:11
  Tracy Collins: Stay tuned to find out why it deserves a spot on your itinerary.
• 0:16
  Intro: Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:18
  Intro: Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracey Collins.
• 0:23
  Intro: In this podcast, tracy shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation.
• 0:38
  Intro: Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.
• 0:56
  Tracy Collins: Hi and welcome to this week's edition of the UK Travel Planet podcast.
• 1:00
  Tracy Collins: This week, I'm joined by Vivian Cannon, manager of St Albans City Centre, bid.
• 1:05
  Tracy Collins: Now, just 20 minutes by train from London, st Albans is the perfect day trip, or even a relaxing base if you want to explore more of Hertfordshire.
• 1:13
  Tracy Collins: Vivian is passionate about sharing all the reasons why this historic city is such a brilliant destination, from its rich Roman heritage and beautiful cathedral to its family-friendly parks, foodie scene and vibrant year-round events.
• 1:25
  Tracy Collins: Whether you are spending a few days in London or planning a longer UK adventure, st Albans is a destination well worth adding to your itinerary, and this episode is packed with ideas to help you make the most of it.
• 1:36
  Tracy Collins: I started by asking Vivian about her role at St Albans City Centre, bid.
• 1:42
  Vivian Cannon: Hello, I am the manager of St Albans City Centre, BID, which is a business improvement district and it's business led and business funded and it's not for profit and it's formed to just support the businesses within the city centre flourish and develop as a vibrant business community.
• 2:05
  Tracy Collins: I'm sure lots of our listeners are going to St Albans now.
• 2:08
  Tracy Collins: Where is that so?
• 2:09
  Tracy Collins: Would you like to describe where it is?
• 2:11
  Tracy Collins: And how would you describe St Albans to somebody who hasn't been?
• 2:17
  Vivian Cannon: If you're looking at the map of England and you look at London and you look up from London almost almost directly up, we're about 20 miles, which equates to 20 minutes or so on the train, so really easy access.
• 2:32
  Vivian Cannon: If you're coming through that route or off the M1 or A1, we're very easy to get to, which is a nice difference if you've been in the city of London or somewhere else and you want a bit of green space around you.
• 2:48
  Vivian Cannon: So time to relax.
• 2:50
  Vivian Cannon: So it's a nice you could call it a really large market town, although we have a city because of our cathedral.
• 2:56
  Vivian Cannon: So we're surrounded by the Hertfordshire countryside and we have a river going through and it's a nice chalk river which is known for its fresh, cleanness, and the river that would feed watercress farms.
• 3:11
  Tracy Collins: I think this is important to say about St Albans, about just how historically interesting it is to visit.
• 3:17
  Tracy Collins: So if you're listening and you're visiting the UK and you think, oh, I've got such an interest in history, st Albans is an absolutely fantastic destination, so let's let's talk about some of the Roman history, I guess, around St Albans, or Verulamium as it was called then, and then kind of what is still left today.
• 3:35
  Tracy Collins: If I visit St Albans, what can I see from that era?
• 3:39
  Vivian Cannon: Oh, we have a really lovely collection of mosaic hypercoursed floors and murals and things like that.
• 3:47
  Vivian Cannon: So the very crudest element of the Roman society that you can see is in our Verulamium Park beautiful green open space park, and there's part of the ancient wall of a villa or a building of Roman times.
• 4:02
  Vivian Cannon: So we have an open air Roman theatre of Verilanium built in the year AD 140, we think it would have been used for religious processes, dancing, armed combat and apparently wild beast shows, but you can still see it, you can step down into the theatre and you can be in the theatre.
• 4:25
  Vivian Cannon: And what's really great about that and its survival is that we have a very renowned local theatre company who actually, throughout the summer, do a whole theatre festival.
• 4:37
  Vivian Cannon: So you can do as the Romans did, you can sit in their open air theatre and you can watch public shows.
• 4:45
  Vivian Cannon: So you're literally doing what ancestors did of St Albans.
• 4:49
  Vivian Cannon: And then we have a fantastic Verilania museum with all kinds of artefacts that have been found during archaeological digs.
• 4:56
  Vivian Cannon: So I think if you're into Romans, there's lots of interactive activity in Verilania museum, romans, there's lots of interactive activity in Verulania Museum and you can really kind of feed your interest and hunger to find out.
• 5:13
  Tracy Collins: And it's amazing, you don't have to go very far from Londinium to go and see a little bit more of Roman history if that's something that you're interested in, but of course there's medieval history as well in St Albans.
• 5:26
  Vivian Cannon: Oh, my goodness, we have the peasants' revolt, when they revolted about the church commanding what they did and when they did it.
• 5:33
  Vivian Cannon: So they said we don't like this, we're going to organise our own lives.
• 5:38
  Vivian Cannon: Thank you very much.
• 5:38
  Vivian Cannon: We have previous to that, we have Boudicca coming to kill off the Romans, so that's obviously a bit earlier than medieval times.
• 5:46
  Vivian Cannon: But I suppose the biggest thing that we can claim which nobody really expects and looks at us in question and say really is that we had the first battle of the War of the Roses.
• 5:57
  Vivian Cannon: And of course the War of the Roses is Lancastrian and Yorkshire fight, but that first battle started down here, the wars, the first battle of the wars.
• 6:09
  Vivian Cannon: So we've got a real mix of history.
• 6:12
  Vivian Cannon: So Tudor War of the Roses, we've got the lot.
• 6:17
  Tracy Collins: You really have, and you've also got a medieval clock tower as well, because I know I've seen it.
• 6:22
  Vivian Cannon: So the clock tower was built in 1405 and is, as you say, the only surviving medieval town belfry in England.
• 6:29
  Vivian Cannon: And over the centuries it's been a shop and a government telegraph station during the Napoleonic Wars and, gabriel, the tower's original one-ton bell remains in place and we still hear it, which rather special.
• 6:44
  Vivian Cannon: It would have also rung out an alarm um in case of fire and um and fray, such as the battle of saint albans in 1455.
• 6:53
  Vivian Cannon: We're full of battles around here.
• 6:54
  Vivian Cannon: I'm not sure that's wonderful, but we've all survived and um, it is a fantastic.
• 6:59
  Vivian Cannon: You know, if you, if you, want to take a typical selfie of the clock tower, that's great.
• 7:05
  Vivian Cannon: But just at the back, around the corner of the building, is a little door and it says very quietly on the door commit no nuisance.
• 7:14
  Vivian Cannon: And it was a polite but forceful way of our ancestors to demand a high standard of behaviour from passers-by.
• 7:24
  Vivian Cannon: And I have seen many children pushed by their parents in front of that door to have that photograph taken.
• 7:31
  Tracy Collins: I think that's a must-do when you're in St Albans.
• 7:33
  Tracy Collins: It sounds like definite, definite.
• 7:35
  Tracy Collins: Go and take a picture in front of that.
• 7:37
  Tracy Collins: I mean how long that must hark back back, I don't know, hundreds of years that that sign on the door absolutely.
• 7:45
  Vivian Cannon: I.
• 7:45
  Vivian Cannon: I don't know when it was first put there, but most people feel like it's been there forever and it's just one of those lovely kind of wagging your finger at the community I know I think it's absolutely brilliant.
• 8:00
  Tracy Collins: So we've kind of covered a bit of the.
• 8:02
  Tracy Collins: We've got roman history in saint auburn's.
• 8:04
  Tracy Collins: We've got medieval history.
• 8:06
  Tracy Collins: You can, you can see, you're living in it.
• 8:08
  Tracy Collins: If you live in saint auburn's, you go and visit, you can go and experience it.
• 8:11
  Tracy Collins: And and we've got to talk about saint auburn's cathedral.
• 8:14
  Tracy Collins: We've talked a little bit about saint auburn and that, the, uh, the, the ceremony area, that tradition, but talk a little bit about the actual cathedral itself.
• 8:23
  Vivian Cannon: Okay, I have some lovely facts and figures here for you.
• 8:26
  Vivian Cannon: So the cathedral is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain.
• 8:31
  Vivian Cannon: If you step inside you'll find the shrine, obviously, of St Auburn, which has been the focal point for visitors and pilgrims alike.
• 8:40
  Vivian Cannon: And if you think that the Watling Road this is the Roman Watling Road and Icknald Way, come directly, you know, locally to St Albans.
• 8:50
  Vivian Cannon: So the Watling Road, the ancient road, would come through St Albans and pilgrims would be coming to visit that shrine.
• 8:57
  Vivian Cannon: At 85 metres long, it has the longest nave of any cathedral in England and an extensive collection of medieval wall paintings and you'll see some graffiti that people have scratched into the walls there as well.
• 9:10
  Vivian Cannon: And you know whilst you're here it's not stuck in the past because the cathedral puts on an array of all kinds of popular activities and events, from pop songs to the International Organ Festival, to yoga under a floating moon that they had installed one year.
• 9:27
  Vivian Cannon: So it's a vibrant, used cathedral and there's some fantastic local residents who act as tour guides there and give you all the intricate little hidden details that, unless you're with them, you don't tend to see oh, that's really interesting.
• 9:43
  Tracy Collins: And tour guides how do we get access to tour guides?
• 9:46
  Tracy Collins: Do we have to book those in advance?
• 9:47
  Vivian Cannon: yeah, uh, you can, or you can, whilst you're here, just just roll up and see what they're doing.
• 9:52
  Vivian Cannon: Um, I would the.
• 9:54
  Vivian Cannon: The guides in the cathedral are there for it, for whenever you walk in, the local tour guides that will give you the history of St Albans in its Tudor glory, its Victorian glory just general history and we'll walk around the town with you in small groups.
• 10:08
  Vivian Cannon: I think it's about £6 to book a tour with them, but it's thorough and I hear lots of laughter.
• 10:16
  Vivian Cannon: And sometimes in the office where I'm based in the centre we're in a really old 17th century building here that used to be an old pub I suddenly hear a whole lot of people, um, underneath the window, as a tour guide is telling them about.
• 10:31
  Vivian Cannon: You know the building and what it used to be, and I often want to be that person in the film that throws that bucket of water out the window into the street on them.
• 10:39
  Vivian Cannon: But I I dared do that because I really do want visitors to come here that would be an authentic medieval experience, though, wouldn't it, vivian?
• 10:47
  Tracy Collins: well, well, yeah, I mean you'd pay me for it.
• 10:49
  Tracy Collins: That would be great, absolutely, and now there's also a really good market.
• 10:54
  Tracy Collins: I think it's uh, it's award-winning.
• 10:56
  Tracy Collins: Is that right?
• 10:56
  Tracy Collins: The the market in St Albans?
• 10:59
  Vivian Cannon: Best large outdoor market in Britain, 2024.
• 11:03
  Vivian Cannon: And it's maintaining that quality.
• 11:04
  Vivian Cannon: It's got great variety, as you would expect a market of your everyday weekly shopping needs, but at the same time it has some fantastic gifts, souvenirs, that kind of stuff, and on Saturday it is heaving.
• 11:18
  Vivian Cannon: It's very lovely and a good experience.
• 11:21
  Vivian Cannon: If you're not used to, you know English markets and now.
• 11:26
  Tracy Collins: So if I, if I arrive at St Albans, say, if I get the train into St Albans from London, is it?
• 11:33
  Tracy Collins: Is St Albans a walkable city?
• 11:36
  Vivian Cannon: it is.
• 11:37
  Vivian Cannon: I would.
• 11:38
  Vivian Cannon: I would give you a heads up that the first thing you do as you enter, coming off the train, is a bit of a hill.
• 11:44
  Vivian Cannon: There's a not steep but an incline, and it's 10 to 15 minutes to walk.
• 11:50
  Vivian Cannon: But once you're in the saint auburn's, the first big building you come up to is the saint auburn's museum and gallery, which um has your toilets.
• 11:58
  Vivian Cannon: It has a coffee shop in there and the coffee shop is in a the old converted courtroom so you can go into the dock, you can go into the prisoner cells underneath you, so it's a quite a tea room experience and obviously they've got museum and exhibitions there.
• 12:13
  Vivian Cannon: So that's, you know, you've arrived.
• 12:15
  Vivian Cannon: When you see that and everything I believe is is easily navigable and and within walking distance.
• 12:23
  Vivian Cannon: And even if you decide to go down into the park to Verilanium Park, it's just a short walk through the park to the Verilanium Museum.
• 12:32
  Vivian Cannon: So, yes, you can do it all from from one hotel, from one one day visit.
• 12:38
  Vivian Cannon: It's nice.
• 12:40
  Tracy Collins: That's perfect.
• 12:41
  Tracy Collins: So if I'm visiting with you know, I'm just thinking about families who are visiting the UK and they want to get out of London and think St Albans would be a perfect place to visit.
• 12:50
  Tracy Collins: What sort of activities are there that you would recommend for families with children?
• 12:58
  Vivian Cannon: Well, they can always run around and stretch their feet, sit in Verillanium park and there's a nice um, if you come prepared and you're staying and it's a hot day, you've got the splash park and and all of that kind of stuff.
• 13:09
  Vivian Cannon: But the museum and gallery do a lot of activities for for children interactive, just like verillanium.
• 13:16
  Vivian Cannon: The cathedral has some interactive activities too, and quite often during summer months, like for this year for instance we've got a mini beach just set up in the town, where we'll have a mini beach set up in the town centre.
• 13:30
  Vivian Cannon: So there'll be some trails to do and follow and some activities like that.
• 13:35
  Vivian Cannon: And for older people, who will like museums and galleries and maybe not the children's interactive bit but the general interactivity of learning, there's lots to stimulate them.
• 13:47
  Vivian Cannon: And, as we've just discussed, there are eras all through history.
• 13:51
  Vivian Cannon: And then for those who want to pay homage to people of our past, we have a blue plaque trail that highlights some famous people that have been lived here or spent time here.
• 14:04
  Vivian Cannon: So if they're into their golf and they want to pay homage to the Ryder Cup, this is where the originator of the Ryder Cup lived and did business, samuel Ryder.
• 14:16
  Vivian Cannon: So there's lots of things to pique people's interest and obviously, if you want to see our shops, we have a good collection of shops.
• 14:26
  Vivian Cannon: We would say a premier selection of shops in Hertfordshire.
• 14:29
  Vivian Cannon: You'll get those in St Albans.
• 14:32
  Tracy Collins: Definitely, and I've heard there's an Art Deco cinema as well, which really interests me because I love Art Deco.
• 14:38
  Tracy Collins: So what sort of shows does that have on?
• 14:41
  Tracy Collins: Is that just kind of regular shows that are on?
• 14:46
  Vivian Cannon: It will catch you regular.
• 14:47
  Vivian Cannon: So you'll your willy wonkers and all that kind of stuff, but they'll do foreign language films, they'll do the retro films that have such a high following.
• 14:56
  Vivian Cannon: They have a really good diverse kind of film show uh menu and there's there'll always be something on to attract the different ages.
• 15:06
  Vivian Cannon: And the thing about that um, art deco cinema, you know, is it's the local community that invested millions of pounds themselves donating it to the restoration of that cinema.
• 15:18
  Vivian Cannon: So it's quite special, um, it's in the heart of people and you, and it's not like rows and rows of seats.
• 15:25
  Vivian Cannon: You can, you can do that if you're on the balcony, your standard rows of seats, but if you go down to the stalls, there are tables and it's just like cocktail hour in a nightclub.
• 15:35
  Vivian Cannon: You have your seats very comfortable, you can have a bit of a food thing and then the quite often the team will come and give you a bit of an explanation about the director or something.
• 15:47
  Vivian Cannon: If you're a real film buff, if that's your thing, um, so you're, you're really engaging with, um, the film industry, which is rife around here yeah, I think there's lots of um movies and tv series filmed in that area, aren't there?
• 16:03
  Tracy Collins: so yeah, that's really cool.
• 16:05
  Tracy Collins: So are there any other, any names that you can drop of anybody that would look for on that trail, apart from the Mr Ryder?
• 16:11
  Vivian Cannon: who set?
• 16:11
  Tracy Collins: up the golf.
• 16:13
  Vivian Cannon: There are some names.
• 16:14
  Vivian Cannon: So Stephen Hawking, who we know as the physicist he went to school in St Albans before he then moved on to Oxford.
• 16:23
  Vivian Cannon: We have Frederick Saunder, who was known as the orchid king and he used to supply Queen Victoria with her orchids and he would travel the world um creating that.
• 16:36
  Vivian Cannon: I have to name some, some women, because obviously we're proud of our female history here and we had um the very first woman to be appointed as a town clerk in England, Betty Entwistle, which is a bit of a Yorkshire up north sound, so that family obviously came down here.
• 16:55
  Vivian Cannon: And Sarah Churchill of the 1600s to the 1700s was the Duchess of Marlborough and she in her own right had a lot of power.
• 17:07
  Vivian Cannon: So we have a real mix of people that were here oh, you absolutely do.
• 17:12
  Tracy Collins: Well, I mean, the the history is, is, uh is.
• 17:15
  Tracy Collins: There's just so much of it kind of embedded in the entire area of you know, right from pre-history, roman history, medieval history up to the present day.
• 17:25
  Tracy Collins: You've absolutely got everything in St Albans now.
• 17:27
  Tracy Collins: What you do also have is a lot of very good food and drink options as well, and I believe you've got a reputation as mini London for foodies.
• 17:37
  Vivian Cannon: So let's have a chat about some of the fantastic food and drink options we've got as well the Thompson restaurant with head chef Phil Thompson, who also will attend the food and drink pub in the park festival that comes to Verilanium Park in the summers, and he he's accomplished three AA rosette status.
• 17:59
  Vivian Cannon: So if you like really high, high class eating, they're the ones to go to.
• 18:06
  Vivian Cannon: But, as I say, we have Dillon's in George Street, we have the Cock in St Albans, who all come with high caliber food reputations and having eaten in some of them, I would support that.
• 18:21
  Tracy Collins: What about pubs Viv?
• 18:22
  Tracy Collins: Because we can't miss out pubs when we visit in St Albans.
• 18:27
  Vivian Cannon: Well, we claim to have the once celebrated England's oldest pub in St Albans, the Old Fighting Cox, and it should be on your agenda.
• 18:37
  Vivian Cannon: The original structure had been dated as far back as 793 AD and it was originally a pigeon coop used by the monks, so it's had a good change of use there yeah interesting change of use.
• 18:55
  Vivian Cannon: Yes, it's the edge of Verilanium Park, so it's, and it's serving award-winning food as well.
• 18:59
  Vivian Cannon: They've won a lot of awards there and then.
• 19:02
  Vivian Cannon: But right in the heart you've got a pub like the Boot, which is directly, directly next to the Clock Tower.
• 19:08
  Vivian Cannon: You're not going to miss it, and it's rumoured that the War of the Roses started outside the door of that pub, in Marketplace.
• 19:16
  Vivian Cannon: So I don't know whether it was just a row between a couple of people that caused a whole war, but needless to say, it's got that reputation.
• 19:24
  Vivian Cannon: It has excellent real ales, and saint auburn's is the birthplace of an organization called camera, which is a campaign for really better ales.
• 19:36
  Vivian Cannon: Real ales, thank you.
• 19:38
  Vivian Cannon: You know it.
• 19:38
  Vivian Cannon: It's the campaign for real ales.
• 19:41
  Vivian Cannon: So that started here too.
• 19:42
  Tracy Collins: So you can imagine, when you go in the pubs there's a variety of homemade ales and um, good tasting and what's really nice is that I'm thinking about our listeners here and if you're, if you're visiting the uk and want to go to a, you know, have that genuine, uh, english pub experience.
• 20:01
  Tracy Collins: These are the sort of places that we recommend that you seek out.
• 20:05
  Tracy Collins: So if you go to st auburn's, you can go and experience a proper traditional English pub with some good ales and good food, yes, and good food, and they're independently run.
• 20:17
  Vivian Cannon: So that's the crux of the matter.
• 20:19
  Vivian Cannon: As well, they're independently run.
• 20:21
  Vivian Cannon: All our pubs are pubs.
• 20:22
  Vivian Cannon: You know, we have that English tradition.
• 20:24
  Vivian Cannon: But the ones we've just mentioned are uniquely independently runs, which is really lovely with the amount that we have around here yeah, no, that's really good, so they're worth popping into.
• 20:33
  Tracy Collins: What about?
• 20:34
  Tracy Collins: I know you've mentioned that there's you've got some seasonal uh highlights and things that go on like foodie uh type festivals.
• 20:40
  Tracy Collins: But uh, what sort of things have you got over the year?
• 20:42
  Vivian Cannon: because I'm thinking like from month to month that people are planning, it'd be good to know kind of what sort of things that you have throughout the year so, yes, so I would always keep an eye on enjoy saint albans, because that's got a whole what's on page and you'll see all the festivals coming up and it would kick start with something amazing happening in the cathedral.
• 21:00
  Vivian Cannon: So we know they're going to have giant whales being floated in the cathedral at some point.
• 21:04
  Vivian Cannon: So keep an eye on what's going on there, um, and we have the the spring festival, which just takes up the whole of the city centre.
• 21:12
  Vivian Cannon: Um, and that would happen around um the may period.
• 21:16
  Vivian Cannon: We have the foodie festival.
• 21:18
  Vivian Cannon: Um, and that's great.
• 21:20
  Vivian Cannon: It's got live bands, a feasting tent, artisan market.
• 21:23
  Vivian Cannon: That's usually end of may, beginning of june, and lots of kids' activities there as well.
• 21:28
  Vivian Cannon: Pub in the Park, which we've mentioned earlier and which obviously is just a huge enjoyment of food and drinks, and our local restaurants are invited to attend that because of their calibre as well.
• 21:41
  Vivian Cannon: As we've mentioned Canberra, we've got the St Albans Beer and Cider Festival.
• 21:45
  Vivian Cannon: That happens in autumn.
• 21:46
  Vivian Cannon: We usually have something happening for Halloween and we have the Gin and Jazz Festival, which focuses on a very old part of St Albans, in George Street, and all the shops will open up for late night shopping and you're invited to have lots of lovely gin whilst you're there.
• 22:03
  Vivian Cannon: One of the festivals that we really enjoy and truly celebrates who we are and what we are is the alban day pilgrimage and festival.
• 22:12
  Vivian Cannon: So, from the cathedral's perspective, they are celebrating um, saint alban, the first saint of britain, um, and they have a pilgrimage procession that starts at one end of the town and walks through to the cathedral, and we have giant 12-foot puppets who are all characters that play a role in the story of the making of Saint Auburn himself, and we have also giant puppets of our peregrine falcons that are honed on the top on the roof of the cathedral, who have just laid four chicks that everyone's celebrating.
• 22:47
  Vivian Cannon: So it's a really lovely mix.
• 22:49
  Vivian Cannon: And because it's a pilgrimage festival, um, or the procession is, and they are literally inviting all of their, all people who want to walk that small walk, to pay, to take a pilgrimage, and they go into the, the cathedral, and they give thanks, and whilst they go and do that, the festival starts outside the cathedral and in the, the city centre, um, which we were just organizing, uh, this past weekend.
• 23:15
  Vivian Cannon: So it always happens in late june, around about the 20th, 21st, 22nd, and we celebrate our history, so we celebrate the romans and we have roman reenactments.
• 23:26
  Vivian Cannon: And we have the modern day gladiators that you see on telly who are trying to knock each other off with big giant blow up sticks.
• 23:34
  Vivian Cannon: And then you have the gladiator reenactments and we had a female gladiator telling everybody about fights in Roman times this year, and we had a man who would create pilgrim badges.
• 23:45
  Vivian Cannon: So when you do your pilgrimages you have a pilgrim passport and you'd often get a stamp or take a memento, and we have very few remaining old pewter pilgrim badges.
• 23:58
  Vivian Cannon: So he was remaking those badges.
• 24:01
  Vivian Cannon: So, as you can see, we kind of celebrate all of the eras through our history on the same day, because St Albans has given us the name he was Auburn, we are now St Albans, and that day is full of fun for families.
• 24:14
  Vivian Cannon: So we've got the mature people wanting to understand the history of the buildings and who used to live here, and obviously the Roman and the medieval history, and then we have the kids who just want to make a mosaic or stamp something, or you you know.
• 24:29
  Vivian Cannon: So it's all linked to our history, um, but it's something to keep everybody busy.
• 24:33
  Vivian Cannon: So that's a really lovely time to come, because that's when we celebrate the true saint albans and it sounds like so much fun.
• 24:40
  Tracy Collins: I have to say, vivian, really sounds like a lot of fun, so I'll have to put that in my diary for next year.
• 24:45
  Tracy Collins: Unfortunately, I've missed it this year.
• 24:46
  Tracy Collins: But, um, if you're listening and you're thinking, yeah, I'm gonna add St Albans into my visit when I visit the UK.
• 24:52
  Tracy Collins: Um, we mentioned before, it's very easy to get to from London and it's very, very easy to get to by train.
• 24:58
  Tracy Collins: So if I was staying in London, which is the easiest way by train to actually get into St Albans, because I don't want to get there it's easy enough to walk into St Albans itself.
• 25:06
  Tracy Collins: But how do I actually get from London to St Albans?
• 25:10
  Vivian Cannon: It's a super quick and easy train ride from St Pancras and it's just 20 minutes almost into the heart of St Albans.
• 25:19
  Tracy Collins: Well, that's perfect.
• 25:20
  Tracy Collins: Now I'm going to end the podcast with a bit of a quick fire round, because I know you know the area really well, so I want to ask you what are some of your favourites, if this is all right.
• 25:29
  Tracy Collins: So what is your favourite pub in St Albans?
• 25:33
  Vivian Cannon: Well, my personal favourite is the Cock Inn on the main St Peter's Street.
• 25:40
  Vivian Cannon: It's a 17th century pub and it's got beamed ceilings and wooden floors and a lovely log fire and it's a perfect all-round place because it's got a nice heated garden as well and the chef there was recently on a TV program called Master Chef the professionals.
• 25:56
  Vivian Cannon: So you know, you're going to get good food.
• 25:59
  Tracy Collins: Ah, perfect, okay, add that one in.
• 26:01
  Tracy Collins: What about your favorite cafe or go-to spot for a bite to eat?
• 26:07
  Vivian Cannon: Oh, I can't give you one, I have to give you two.
• 26:09
  Vivian Cannon: So I have um Cafe Roma, which is at one end of the city and you can sit outside on the pavement and watch the world go by.
• 26:16
  Vivian Cannon: Um, and then I have Gale's, which is at the opposite end, near the clock tower, and I just like the the variety of food that they offer.
• 26:25
  Tracy Collins: Now what about one hidden gem that you love in St Albans?
• 26:30
  Vivian Cannon: Well, this is a lot of our buildings have modern day businesses operating in them.
• 26:35
  Vivian Cannon: So you can go in a pub and you go to the cashier to pay for what you want and all of a sudden, to the left hand side, you see this really old door and it turns out that it's the old door to the women's jail.
• 26:49
  Vivian Cannon: So these things are hidden in the buildings.
• 26:53
  Vivian Cannon: So that's what makes us special.
• 26:55
  Vivian Cannon: I'm really proud of our businesses because, you know, they adapt to how they present their goods and wares whilst dealing with the historic buildings and preserving them, which is why we have such a lovely, pretty city and it definitely is now, because I always end the podcast with the same question but if anybody's visiting for the first time, what would be the one tip you would give them?
• 27:18
  Vivian Cannon: always look at, enjoy St Albans, because it gives you all of the how to get here, where to go, how to plan your day, what's on.
• 27:25
  Vivian Cannon: And I, if you want a quick read of the history of St Albans, I would go to the museum and gallery and read our wall of firsts well, we'll put links to the website in the show notes for this episode.
• 27:39
  Tracy Collins: And also, you've got socials as well, I guess Instagram yes, we have Instagram and Facebook.
• 27:45
  Vivian Cannon: um, we have enjoy St Albans and we and we also have Shop St Albans.
• 27:50
  Vivian Cannon: If you want to know, if you're coming for the shopping experience, you can see what deals and who's doing what.
• 27:55
  Tracy Collins: Perfect.
• 27:56
  Tracy Collins: Well, I will link to those in the show notes for this episode, which is at uktravelplanningcom, forward slash, episode 160.
• 28:04
  Tracy Collins: I can't believe it.
• 28:05
  Tracy Collins: Thank you so much for joining us, viv.
• 28:07
  Tracy Collins: It's been lovely to talk to you.
• 28:08
  Tracy Collins: You it's been lovely to talk about st albans.
• 28:10
  Tracy Collins: I really love showcasing destinations which may not be on people's first uh list of places to come when they think about doing day trips from london.
• 28:20
  Tracy Collins: So it's really lovely to highlight somewhere else that we can put on the radar for visitors to the uk that, equally, they're going to love just as much as some of the other well-known places and they'll find the history.
• 28:33
  Tracy Collins: They're going to have great food and drink opportunities there and just a really fun day out.
• 28:38
  Tracy Collins: So thanks so much for joining us for this episode.
• 28:40
  Vivian Cannon: Viv, thank you very much and I look forward to seeing everybody when they come.
• 28:46
  Tracy Collins: Thanks once again to Vivian for coming on to the show this week.
• 28:48
  Tracy Collins: I hope you enjoyed learning all about St Albans and why it's such a great addition to any London and UK itinerary.
• 28:54
  Tracy Collins: You'll find all the details mentioned today, including links to the Enjoy St Albans website and upcoming events, in the show notes at uktravelplanetcom.
• 29:04
  Tracy Collins: Forward slash episode 160.
• 29:07
  Tracy Collins: If you loved this episode, please consider leaving a review on your favorite podcast app.
• 29:11
  Tracy Collins: It really helps others discover the show.
• 29:14
  Tracy Collins: But, as usual, until next time.
• 29:16
  Tracy Collins: Happy UK travel planning.
• 29:18
  Tracy Collins: Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK travel planning podcast.
• 29:24
  Tracy Collins: As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom.
• 29:28
  Tracy Collins: If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app?
• 29:34
  Tracy Collins: We love to hear from you and you never know.
• 29:37
  Tracy Collins: You may receive a shout out in a future episode.
• 29:40
  Tracy Collins: But, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week.
• 29:44
  Tracy Collins: Happy UK travel planning.