Local Life

Denise Parsons, Manager of St Albans BID, tells Local Life listeners what it's like for local businesses in these difficult times but also has some good news to share from the pandemic.

In the brief respite between two lockdowns, St Albans Museum+Gallery opened for visitors - and Curator Sarah Keeling told Local Life listeners how they had prepared, what we could see in the summer and what would be coming up next.

Isha Kamara on the importance of community events and her experiences from a recent Kickoff@3 tournament.

Head Guide Stephen de Silva tells Rob Pearman how the Cathedral coped with the lockdown and what it can now offer visitors in a Covid-compliant environment. Interior and exterior visits can both be booked in advance - and the choir is back in action for regular services!

To celebrate the 175th anniversary of St Albans & Hertfordshire Architectural & Archaeological Society (also known as SAHAAS or Arc & Arc), here again is an interview with the Society's President, Sandy Walkington, first broadcast on Local Life a couple of years ago. As well as plenty about the Society, this conversation with Rob Pearman [...]

Clare Hobba discusses two books that make the connection between wildlife and the environment: "Vesper Flights" by Helen Macdonald and "Wilding" by Isabella Tree.

There is nationwide concern that rough sleepers - taken safely off the streets at the start of the lockdown in March - are once again at risk as winter approaches and the pandemic is still all around. Most local authorities had no option but to place them in hotel accommodation which they then had to [...]

With the government's furlough scheme due to close at the end of October, many will be anxious about the possibility of redundancy. There is no easy solution, but it's best to know your rights in advance. On Local Life, June Chapman, CEO of Citizens Advice St Albans, offered seven critical tips for those facing the [...]

Jennifer Marshall, Regional Children’s Home Manager for MacIntryre Charity, explains how this local organisation supports children with often complex learning disabilities such as autism, helping them to develop skills for adult life. Youngsters who seek continuity in their daily life were especially at risk during the Covid-19 lockdown but learned to cope and develop against [...]

The pandemic and subsequent lock-down brought additional financial difficulties to even more local individuals and families. But St Albans Foodbank - assisted by other local charities, volunteers and generous donors - continues to provide critical support, as Emma Dalton explains in this telephone interview...

Extracts of Sundays Coverage of the Alban Virtual Street Festival 2020 with regular updates and exclusive news about the events happening online.

Extracts of Sundays Coverage of the Alban Virtual Street Festival 2020 with regular updates and exclusive news about the events happening online.

Extracts of Saturdays Coverage of the Alban Virtual Street Festival 2020 with regular updates and exclusive news about the events happening online.

For the concluding part of her audio tour of St Albans Museum+Gallery, Curator Sarah Kealing takes us into the West Glazed Link (with its views over Market Place and back into the Courtroom) and then onwards into the Keeper's Gallery where the most recent exhibition (pre-lockdown) was about Handley Page - an exhibition that can [...]

Continuing her tour of the building, Sarah Kealing moves up the Grand Staircase, with its many images of 'local people', and into The Assembly Room - the most impressive space in the building and one that offers a multitude of uses: from meetings and lectures to weddings, bar mitzvahs and parties. One of many installations [...]

Continuing her audio tour, Museum + Gallery Curator Sarah Kealing takes us into the Weston Gallery, a new location created during the major refurbishment and one that has already offered a wide variety of exhibitions.

From The Courtroom, the prisoners were taken back down to the cells - a journey that Sarah Kealing follows so she can describe how they looked then and how they look now.....

Continuing her audio tour of St Albans Museum+Gallery, Sarah Keeling describes the famous Courtroom (now the cafe). From the dock in this beautifully restored circular chamber, local thieves were sentenced to transportation to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) for crimes as minor as stealing a cricket bat. Here too, in 1851, the Bribery Commission found St [...]

Phil Richards plays a new charity release which aims to raise funds for various community groups in St Albans.

Curator Sarah Keeling starts our virtual tour of the St Albans Museum+Gallery by walking through the entrance area towards the Courtroom. Next time - upstairs to The Assembly Room. (Photo Courtesy of St Albans Museums.)