Historical pictures of High Street, St Albans Road and Vicarage Road

From pubs and cinemas to views of roads that have often changed beyond recognition, we hope you are continuing to see these images and they bring back some memories.

Having revisited some of them again earlier this month, here is a second batch featuring historical views of the High Street, St Albans Road and Vicarage Road, together with the captions kindly provided by the museum’s volunteer archivist Christine Orchard.

St Albans Road

Christine said: “This view comes from an official guide printed in 1948 which encouraged visitors to Hertfordshire - the photograph was produced by Greville Studios, a prominent Watford photographers.

“This view looks toward the Dome roundabout where the A41 meets St Albans Road. The appearance of the buildings along this stretch of St Albans Road is little changed today - the side road is Holland Gardens.

“The one thing missing today is the giant gas holder which was constructed to serve the area's new housing developments. It was positioned roughly where Asda's car park is now.”

Read more: Town centre scenes from the past revisited

Lower High Street

Christine said: “This image of the Lower High Street was taken around 1900 by the Watford photographer William Coles. It looks in the direction of Bushey Arches, and Coles would have positioned his camera just beyond the current museum building.

“Of this busy scene just two buildings on the right-hand side of this image have survived. Both belonged to George Capell’s furniture business as can be seen by the painted wall-sign up near the roof of one building and on the side wall of the second one.

“This business was established in 1827 by his father although the exact location is uncertain. George took over the business in the 1860s. We do not know when he gave up the business but from street directories it seems there was a furniture related business here into the 1970s.”

High Street

Christine said: “When this photo was taken, the stretch of six shops directly behind the sign post, were so new that only one of them is occupied. The rest do not even have their windows, only a wooden fencing with ‘To Let’ signs.

“We know that the building was erected in 1935/6 so this photograph must be taken very near to this date. The sign post is on the roundabout where the High Street meets St Albans Road and Rickmansworth Road.”

Vicarage Road

Christine said: “This view looks towards the town along Vicarage Road from the point where it meets Fearnley Street and Farraline Road. It is dated to around 1908 and shows a stretch of shops known at the time as The Promenade - today it is a pedestrian precinct.

“At this time, the shops included four butchers, two greengrocers, a chemist, a fried fish shop, a piano dealer and on the left-hand side, just beyond the lamppost was the premises of the photographer who took this image, Albert Warren.”

St Albans Road at the corner of Langley Road

Christine said: “This unusual view from Langley Road looking across St Albans Road was taken in early summer, 1934. It comes from an album in the museum’s collection that contains photographs of a survey of advertising hoardings around the town (rather than views).

“The surveyor’s pole can be seen running up the side of the building – although collapsible, each section of the pole was still 18 feet long.

“The entire side of this building was used by The Watford Bill Posting Company and it includes the usual mix of national adverts and also what was on at the Plaza and Carlton cinemas and the next production, The Chinese Bungalow, at the Palace Theatre.”