Walking Tour: Street War Memorials

Street War Memorials is a walking tour through St Albans on Sunday 8 November, running from 14:00 to 16:00. It's led by St Albans Tour Guides, and the group meets outside the St Albans Museum + Gallery in St Peter's Street.

The walk follows the Abbey Parish's street war memorials, where the dead of the Great War are remembered not in a church but in the streets where they grew up. It's a specific way of looking at the city: rather than one central monument, the names are scattered across the neighbourhood, kept close to the houses and corners they once knew. The tour works its way from one memorial to the next, with the guide unpicking the history behind each one and the lives of the people whose names appear there. It's about two hours in total, so you'll be on your feet for the afternoon, moving through the parish and stopping to hear the stories that go with the stones.

If you've spent any time walking these streets, you've probably passed these memorials without really noticing them, or perhaps you've stopped to read a name and wondered who the person was. This is a chance to get those answers. The focus is on the Great War, and the tour is as much about the people as it is about the memorials themselves. You'll see the names in their original context, in the streets where those people lived and worked, rather than in a separate place of remembrance.

It runs from 14:00 to 16:00 on Sunday 8 November, starting outside the St Albans Museum + Gallery in St Peter's Street. Tickets must be booked in advance.