ALBERT STREET

An old cobbled street with a central gully, Albert Road was formerly, Chapel Street, The Congregational Chapel was on the north side where the Spiritualist Church now stands. In 1871, the church moved to a new building in The Strand. It is now the URC.

Later the site became The Palace Cinema, known as the Flea Pit. You can still see the old walls either side of the Spiritualist Church, which stands there now.

The White Hart pub described as “ House, Yard and Premises newly built” was licensed in 1858. Next door, where the launderette is now, was a drapers shop and later a grocers shop that became Hayward’s Fish café during WW2.

Chapel Street was central to the caring profession in the old town. Midwife Elizabeth Murch and several nurses lived here. Alongside lived carpenters, tailors, masons and maltsters.