Exhibitions Entertainment This Christmas
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E x hi bi tio nS g sho p pin E t n en tertainm This christmas inks! & dr od Mar ets Fo k www.enjoystalbans.com WelcomeWelcome to Christmas in St Albans – a lively District with lots to offer this season. This is your guide to what’s going on to help you get out and about and into the festive spirit. In fact, we’re all about the fun and games this Christmas. There’s a modern yet nostalgic exhibition opening at our wonderful Museum + Gallery on 1 December called Game Plan: Board Games Revisited. It’s a showcase of board games that will be sure to have you reminiscing about rainy days. It turns out there are lots of other fun and games to be had around the City and District, too - we’ve always been quite a playful lot! Turn to page 10 and see if you can visit all these games-themed spots this Festive season. You’ll have a chance to be a winner every day from 1 to 25 December, too, as St Albans City Centre is transformed day by day into a huge Advent Calendar. A different festive shop window will be “revealed” at 1pm every day and if you share the big moment on Facebook you could be in with a chance to win a prize. At the end, you’ll be able to vote for your favourite display via the enjoystalbans.com website. See the locations of the different windows on pages 16 and 17. See page six for getting to St Albans and visiting the Meraki Christmas Festival St Albans Christmas 2018 3 4 St Albans Christmas 2018 St Albans Christmas 2018 5 Travelling to St Albans for some festive fun? By Car Car Parking: There are many car parks in the City and District. The map on pages 8-9 shows the location of the St Albans car parks. Go to the Parking pages of the District Council’s website at stalbans.gov.uk for post codes and information on pricing. Street parking is also available on a pay and display basis in several key locations around Important information for people the City and District. Blue Badge holders can travelling to St Albans for the park for 3 hours free (Please display permit Meraki Christmas Festival and time clock). Council car parks are free after 6.30pm every day and £1 all day on There is NO PARKING at Sundays. For any enquiries please cotact the Westminster Lodge for visitors Council’s parking team on 01727 819206. to the Meraki Christmas Festival. Visitors are encouraged to use By Rail public transport (see information above) or, if arriving by car, to use St Albans is 20 minutes from St Pancras on City Centre car parks. the Thameslink line and there are frequent services throughout the day and night. The Front Meadow is located The rail service also connects St Albans to opposite the St Albans Abbey Luton, London Luton airport and Bedford in Station at the bottom of Holywell the North, and Gatwick airport and Brighton Hill, less than a ten-minute walk heading South. Check thameslinkrailway. from the St Albans Museum + com for travel information and updates Gallery. Follow temporary event signposts from the Centre of St St Albans is also connected to Watford Albans to get to the Christmas Junction via the Abbey Line for National Rail Festival – see pages 8-9 for a map connections to London Euston, the West Midlands and the North via the West Coast Several buses run up and down mainline. Check abbeyline.org for more Holywell Hill between the Event information. Meadow (the St Albans Abbey Station stop) and the City Centre Both railway stations are just a ten minute (St Peter’s Street). walk from the City centre and are well served by buses. Anybody who presents a valid By Bus and Coach rail or bus ticket for that day can claim 15 per cent off their first St Albans is well connected on the local bus round of drinks at the main bar network with services from North London, or £1 off a single fairground ride Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, Luton and (one offer per ticket). Watford. Bus information can be found at intalink.org.uk 6 St Albans Christmas 2018 St Albans Christmas 2018 7 TOWARDS T HARPENDEN OWA NDRIDGE & RDS SA WHEATHAMPSTEAD T E Map key TOWARDS E R REDBOURN T Car parking S ’S Information point FO R Whether you’re a first-time visitor or LLY E Coach parking LA HERIN T NE CAT E E V P a long-time resident of the District, Coach drop off ER ST U R T L E S we hope you enjoy your visit to our AM E Toilets R T OA Walking route D D A vibrant and historic City Centre M O Charter O U R N Market T T Y H D E PLEA AT R RE F A T FIE T IS W E Alban LD O F H S Arena RO L’S S P S St Albans R RE A S E O A T D O N E & Civic M HA L T Museum + V IC O Centre E S Gallery L T R L T M R O D S W D E ER TER’S S D SPE Verulamium E AGN NC A T A E PE O Museum LL R D S R T A S ST O T T E C E R A K L P D ST C T I L E V I E K C R R ER T I O B A F R M U I GEOR A S GE S Q T S R N Walk from the Meraki Christmas T E E E ET O N H H IG Festival to the Clock Tower via A H C C L S VI A ST ALBANS L T CTO Britain’s oldest pub, taking in a L LO RIA E I N S B D TR CITY STATION EE M O T magnificent view of the Cathedral N R Y O A E D – follow the route marked . If B B A you want to make your way from the City Centre to the Meraki E D C A A Christmas Festival, the quickest way R O R E R is down Holywell Hill, with its lovely T K Maltings L A A D Arts L independent shops and cafés. HOLYWELL HILL W M E I ’S L Theatre F N L A Y O O E S N K T D A O B W N EL M OL R ON D L O VERULAMIUM T O A Meraki H N I D D PARK LL ON Christmas RO Festival LL AD HI L L TOWARDS LONDON Note parking in Westminster E COLNEY, M25 J22 Lodge car park for users of Westminster Lodge Leisure Centre YW L Abbey Theatre and Leisure O Centre only. For Meraki H Festival, please use City Centre car parks. Abbey Theatre ST ALBANS ABBEY STATION TOWARDS M25 J21A boards scratched into stonework, like Cocks had – as its name suggests – HAVE A PLAYFUL CHRISTMAS the one in St Albans Cathedral. Can you a cock-fighting pit where that activity St Albans has a long and fascinating spot it? Look on the northern side of the took place until it was banned the history of gaming and sport that goes building on some of the stone seating 19th century. where patient pilgrims may have sat back thousands of years. This year, the waiting to visit the Shrine of St Alban. Archery City and District will be celebrating our Records show an earthen ditch erected Steeplechase race around the town, known as the Tonman special heritage with an incredible array Ditch which was owned and maintained of festive games, events and activities. by the Abbey. It was sometimes referred to as the ‘Monk’s Ditch’ and in the medieval era housed St Albans’ Start your journey of discovery at the Museum + Gallery, and walk past the archery butts. It was deep enough to new St Albans Museum + Gallery, headquarters of his seed company (and contain misdirected arrows and wide where the vibrant and joyous Game the seed hall next door) on Holywell enough to double up as a roadway. Plan exhibition will be on display Hill – now the Clarion Collection Hotel from 1st December until 3rd March. and Café Rouge, respectively. Steeple Chase Medieval chess piece The St Albans Grand Steeple Chase Originally displayed at the V&A: On display at St Albans Museum + was first run on Nomansland Common Museum of Childhood, this exhibition Gallery is a chess piece made of deer in 1830 and became a regular fixture celebrates the joy, excitement and antler, found while excavating the bringing much business to the town. It occasional frustration of playing board medieval town. It represents a knight promoted by Thomas Coleman, owner games, with some of the most iconic, in battle; if you look closely you of the Turf Hotel on Chequer Street. enthralling and visually striking games can see that is decorated The race is thought to have inspired on show. with carved lines and the creation of the annual Grand ring-and-dot patterns. Keep exploring and visit St Albans National horse race at Aintree. Dated to 1200s, chess Samuel Ryder Cathedral as well as Verulamium was a game played Pub sports Museum to learn more about games mainly by the elite so Nine Men’s Morris – The Fleur de Lys – now The Snug – played throughout the centuries.