| Verulam House | |
|---|---|
 Verulam House, St Albans | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Town or city | St Albans Hertfordshire |
| Country | England |
| Construction started | 1825 |
Verulam House is located in Verulam Road, St Albans on the northwestern side between Church Crescent and Britton Avenue opposite College Street. It has previously been referred to as Diocesan House and also known as the Bishop's Palace. It is of early nineteenth-century origin and is a Grade II Listed Building. [1]
Originally built as a coaching inn known as ‘The Verulam Arms’ which opened in 1826 at the same time as Verulam Road which was then a new section of a super highway (post road) built by Thomas Telford (the 'Colossus of Roads') from London to the port of Holyhead. The new road bypassed a section of the town and the narrow main road northwest out of St Albans at the time: George Street, Romeland and Fishpool Street. [2]
In 1849, after the expansion of the railways and the subsequent decline in the stage/mail coach and carriage traffic for which St Albans depended upon for much of its prosperity, the inn was sold and its associated stables were demolished. [2]
The former stable area provided land for the building of an adjacent Roman Catholic church under the patronage of the local MP of that time, Alexander Raphael. [3] Raphael died intestate shortly after commencement of construction of the church and the site was purchased by Mrs Isabella Worley, who had the church completed according to its original design in 1856 and donated it to the Church of England. [3] This church was known as Christ Church and, although it has been converted to offices since the early 1970s, its Lombardic style tower can still be seen on Verulam Road just to the north west of the house. [4]
The house then became a private residence and was occupied in the mid nineteenth century by the Palin family who are believed to have been related to the Vyses (John Palin married Anne Vyse in 1796), operators of a straw hat factory in the Hatfield district of St Albans. John Palin married Anne Vyse in 1796. [5]
The house became the official residence of the Anglican Bishop of St Albans and became known as the Bishop's Palace in 1908 and then became a Diocesan Retreat and Conference Centre used by the Church of England Diocese of St Albans in 1926. [6]
Throughout the Second World War it was known as Diocesan House. It became a maternity hospital and a facility for training pupil midwives by the General Lying-In Hospital which had been evacuated from York Road, Lambeth, (Waterloo), in central London. [7] During the period between September 1939 and June 1946 two thousand babies were born here. [6] The General Lying-In Hospital was re-established at its former Lambeth premises in 1946 after the end of the war. [7]
In 1994, Verulam House was sold by the Diocese of St Albans and a trust fund set up with the proceeds. [8] Since 1996 the House has been the site of the 'Verulam House Nursing and Residential Home'. The home is owned by Peter Jackson and Damian Tominey and trade as Verulam Healthcare. [9] Religious services are still held in the old chapel. [6]
St Albans is a city located in Hertfordshire, England. It was originally founded as Verlamion a settlement belonging to the Catuvellauni. It was subsequently transformed into the Roman settlement of Verulamium from where it grew into a municipium around AD 50.
St Albans is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, 20 miles (32 km) north-west of London, 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Welwyn Garden City and 11 miles (18 km) south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north and became the city of Verulamium. It is within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area.
The Diocese of Southwark is one of the 42 dioceses of the Church of England, part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The diocese forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. It was created on 1 May 1905 from part of the ancient Diocese of Rochester that was served by a suffragan bishop of Southwark (1891–1905). Before 1877 most of the area was part of the Diocese of Winchester, some being part of the Diocese of London.
The Diocese of St Albans forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England and is part of the wider Church of England, in turn part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The Diocese of Rochester is a Church of England diocese in the English county of Kent and the Province of Canterbury. The cathedral church of the diocese is Rochester Cathedral in the former city of Rochester. The bishop's Latin episcopal signature is: " (firstname) Roffen", Roffensis being the genitive case of the Latin name of the see.
The Diocese of London forms part of the Church of England's Province of Canterbury in England.
St Albans is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Daisy Cooper, a Liberal Democrat.
The Archdiocese of Southwark is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in England. It is led by the Archbishop of Southwark. The archdiocese is part of the Metropolitan Province of Southwark, which covers the South of England. The Southwark archdiocese also makes up part of the Catholic Association Pilgrimage.
The Bishop of Hertford is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of St Albans, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The suffragan See was created by Order in Council of 5 July 1889, but remained dormant until first filled in December 1967. The title takes its name after Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire. The suffragan Bishop of Hertford, along with the suffragan Bishop of Bedford, assists the diocesan Bishop of St Albans in overseeing the diocese; the bishop has oversight of the archdeaconries of Hertford and St Albans, which cover the deaneries & parishes of Hertfordshire.
The Diocese of Guildford is a Church of England diocese covering eight and half of the eleven districts in Surrey, much of north-east Hampshire and a parish in Greater London. The cathedral is Guildford Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Guildford. Of the two provinces of the church, it is in the Province of Canterbury.
John Warren Gladwin is a retired Anglican bishop. From 2004 to 2009, he was the Bishop of Chelmsford in the Church of England. He stands in the open evangelical tradition.
St Peter's Church is a Church of England parish church. It is located in St Albans, England, at the northern end of the town centre.
Tring School is a secondary school with academy status, with approximately 1,500 students aged between 11 and 18. It is located on Mortimer Hill on the east side of the town of Tring, Hertfordshire, England. Tring School includes a Sixth Form with over 300 students. The school was founded by the Church of England and is within the Diocesan Board of Education of the St Albans Diocese.
The General Lying-In Hospital was one of the first maternity hospitals in Great Britain. It opened in 1767 on Westminster Bridge Road, London and closed in 1971. Lying-in is an archaic term for childbirth.
David John Farmbrough was Bishop of Bedford from 1981 to 1993.
Christine Elizabeth Hardman is a retired British Anglican bishop and former Lord Spiritual. She served as Archdeacon of Lewisham, 2001–2008; Archdeacon of Lewisham & Greenwich, 2008–2012; and Bishop of Newcastle, 2015–2021.
Noel Michael Roy Beasley is a British Church of England bishop and epidemiologist. Since June 2022, he has been the Bishop of Bath and Wells; he was enthroned and started active ministry in that role in November 2022. From May 2015 to June 2022, he was Bishop of Hertford, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of St Albans. From 2003 to 2010, he worked at Westcott House, Cambridge, an Anglican theological college, first as chaplain and then as a tutor and the college's vice-principal. During this time, he was also an academic of Imperial College London. From 2010 to 2015, he was Director of Mission for the Diocese of Oxford.
Hemel Hempstead Hospital is an acute District General Hospital in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire operated by the West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
St Alban and St Stephen's Church or Ss Alban and Stephen Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. Although it was built from 1903 to 1905, it was the third attempt to build a permanent local Catholic church in St Albans. It was designed by John Kelly of Kelly & Birchall in the Italian style. It is located on Beaconsfield Road next to the St Albans City railway station in the city centre.
