The Marlborough Science Academy

Turning Forms (BH 166) is a concrete sculpture by Barbara Hepworth, one of her first public commissions, made in 1950 for the Festival of Britain. It was one of two Hepworth commissions for the Festival: the other was a sculpture of abstract standing figures, Contrapuntal Forms, now in Harlow. Turning Forms has been sited at a school in St Albans since 1953. Both of Hepworth's sculptures were listed at Grade II in 1998. Like most sculptures for the Festival of Britain, Contrapuntal Forms was commissioned by the Arts Council, but unusually Turning Forms was commissioned and paid for directly by the Festival board, at the instigation of the architect Jane Drew, to complement her design for the Thameside Restaurant. Hepworth made the sculpture in collaboration with Drew, unusually adopting a Constructivist style reminiscent of the work of Naum Gabo, such as his later kinetic sculpture Revolving Torsion. Hepworth returned to a similar theme with a similarly-named drawing in 1957, held by Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. Turning Firms is an abstract work which stands 84 inches (210 cm) high. It comprises twisting loops of concrete, painted white, supported by a metal armature. The armature was fabricated in Plymouth and coated with a lightweight core of vermiculite then finished with layers of concrete added and shaped by Hepworth at her studio in St Ives. The surface finish is a white "Snowcrete" Portland cement, covered with a layer of white "Snowcem" masonry paint, both products from Blue Circle. The sculpture was exhibited outside the Thameside Restaurant at the Festival of Britain in 1951, near Waterloo Bridge, mounted a motorised plinth that slowly completed a rotation in two minutes. The sculpture was acquired by Hertfordshire County Council: at the time, the Council had embarked on an ambitious programme to build new schools, and acquired artworks to decorate them: for example, a cast of Henry Moore's Family Group is on display at Barclay Academy in Stevenage. Hepworth's sculpture has been sited at St Julian's School, now The Marlborough Science Academy, in St Albans since its opening in 1953. It was removed temporarily for conservation in October 2000, and then exhibited at the Hepworth Wakefield from May to November 2021 alongside Contrapuntal Forms for the first time since 1951, before returning to the school.

St Stephen's Church is a Church of England parish church in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. It is located to the south of the town centre, at the top of St Stephen's Hill (which leads down and then up Holywell Hill to the Abbey). It is a Grade II* listed building.

St Columba's College is a co-educational 4–18 private, Catholic day school and sixth form in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. It was founded in 1939 by Phillip O’Neil and taken over by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart in 1955. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Facing St Albans Cathedral across the River Ver, the college is built around two historic houses, Watling House and Iona House.

St Albans Abbey railway station in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England is about 0.6 miles (1 km) south of the city centre in the St Stephen's area. It is the terminus of the Abbey Line from Watford Junction, operated by London Northwestern Railway. It is one of two stations in St Albans, the other being the much larger and busier St Albans City. The unstaffed station consists of a single open-air platform and a car park. Improvement works were carried out in 2008. It was the second UK railway station to receive a Harrington Hump to improve accessibility.

Verulamium Park is a park in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Set in over 100 acres (0.40 km2) of parkland, Verulamium Park was purchased from the Earl of Verulam in 1929 by the then City Corporation. Today the park is owned and operated by St Albans City and District Council. The park is named after the Roman city of Verulamium on which it stands. The city walls and outline of the main London Gate can still be seen. Archaeological excavations were undertaken in the park during the 1930s by Sir Mortimer Wheeler and his wife Tessa, during which the 1800-year-old hypocaust and its covering mosaic floor were discovered. The Hypocaust Mosaic is on view to the public and currently protected from the elements by a purpose-built building in the park. On the outskirts of the park is Verulamium Museum, which contains hundreds of archaeological objects relating to everyday Roman life in what was a major Roman city. A pub, Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, is also located on the edge of the park. This pub has been listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest such establishment in England. A main feature of the park is the ornamental lake. Construction started on this project during 1929, giving much needed work to the unemployed of St Albans during the depression. The lake is fed by the River Ver. The lake is home to a wealth of waterbirds, including mallards, swans, Canada geese, herons, great crested grebes, coots, pochards and tufted ducks. In the southeastern part of the park, the Westminster Lodge Leisure Centre and Abbey View 9-hole golf course provide a number of sports facilities, including a pool, gym, tennis, fitness classes, running track and football pitch. The park also hosts St Albans parkrun, a free weekly timed 5k event every Saturday morning at 9am. The northeastern edge of the park abuts St Albans Cathedral and St Albans School, the northwestern edge abuts St Michael's Church, and the southeastern edge abuts St Columba's College. St Albans Abbey railway station is situated just to the east of the park. The park also hosts a small children's funfair which has been coming there for 46 years. That comes around Easter with the Sun and the summer holidays. It is situated near the hypocaust.

Ye Olde Fighting Cocks is a public house in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. It is one of several pubs that lay claim to being the oldest in England, claiming to have been in business since 793 AD. The pub was once recognized as the oldest in England by the Guinness World Records, but the record was withdrawn from consideration in 2000 because it was deemed impossible to verify.The building is described by Historic England as being of 16th-century appearance, but as the earliest date for which it can be proved to have been licensed is 1756, and even that date is not certain, its claim to this record is somewhat uncertain. Others such as the Ye Olde Man & Scythe in Bolton, Greater Manchester, and Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem in Nottingham may have better claims. Even in St Albans, the White Hart and the Fleur de Lys (currently called 'The Snug') are believed to have been trading as inns in the late medieval period.

St Stephen is a civil parish in the St Albans City and District in Hertfordshire, England. It is located approximately 17 miles (27 km) north-northwest of central London, straddling the M25 motorway and immediately adjacent to the southern boundary of St Albans. St Stephen is a partly urbanised parish with multiple centres of activity and open land that forms part of the Metropolitan Green Belt. The local council is St Stephen Parish Council. The parish covers Bricket Wood, Chiswell Green, Frogmore, Colney Street, How Wood and Park Street. It is an ancient parish, and sections of it were transferred to St Albans progressively up to 1935. At the 2011 census it had a population of 13,865.

Holywell House was a house in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. The manor house was originally called Hallywell (the later known spelling, Holywell, is probably a corruption of this original spelling). Another possibility as to the origin of the name is the legend of St Alban: Running into St Albans from the south is Holywell Hill, its name taken from the story of Saint Alban's death: legend has it that his severed head rolled down the hill from the execution site and into a well at the bottom (some versions have a well springing from the site at which the head stopped). The manor was in possession of Sir Ralph Rowlett in 1571, and after his death, it passed to his nephew Robert Jenyns (or Jennings). It passed through the Jennings family line, and Sarah Churchill (née Jenyns), Duchess of Marlborough was born here in 1660. After their father Richard's death, the house was jointly owned by Sarah and her sister Frances, until Sarah bought the house outright. She and her husband, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough often stayed here. The house was demolished in 1837, but a blue plaque marks the spot on Holywell Hill where the house is believed to have stood.

There are 225 scheduled monuments in the county of Hertfordshire, England. These protected sites date from the Neolithic period and include barrows, ruined abbeys, castles, and Iron Age hill forts. In the United Kingdom, the scheduling of monuments was first initiated to ensure the preservation of "nationally important" archaeological sites or historic buildings. Protection is given to scheduled monuments under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land, though much has been built upon. The major ancient Roman route Watling Street passed through the city. Much of the site and its environs is now a scheduled monument.

St Albans is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Daisy Cooper, a Liberal Democrat.This article also describes the parliamentary borough (1554-1852) of the same name, consisting only of the city of St Albans, which elected two MPs by the bloc vote system.

St Albans School is a public school (traditional English fee-charging day and former boarding school) in the city of St Albans in Hertfordshire. Entry before Sixth Form is for boys only, but the Sixth Form has been co-educational since 1991. Founded in 948 by Wulsin (Abbot Ulsinus), St Albans School is not only the oldest school in Hertfordshire but also one of the oldest in the world. The school has been called "Britain's oldest public school" by the Daily Mail. Nicholas Carlisle, in 1818, described the school as "of very ancient origin, and of great celebrity" and the Good Schools Guide describes St Albans as a "traditional public school, with a rich history".Among its famous alumni are Pope Adrian IV, Colin Renfrew, Jack Goody, Stephen Hawking, and Ian Grant. The current headmaster, Jonathan Gillespie, was appointed in 2014, and was previously headmaster of Lancing College.