Tucked inside the silent small town of St Alban, this is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain. It stands over the place where Alban, the first martyr, was buried after giving his life for his faith over 1700 years ago – more than 200 years before St Augustine arrived in Canterbury.
The building’s amazing mixture of architectural styles bears witness to the many centuries of its life, first as a monastic Abbey and now as a Cathedral. With much of its present architecture dating from Norman times, it became a cathedral in 1877 and is the second longest cathedral in the United Kingdom (after Winchester). Local residents often call it “the abbey”, although the present cathedral represents only the church of the old Benedictine abbey.
Magna Carta, is regarded as one of the most important surviving legal documents in the western world. Its been said that around 800yrs ago, St Albans played an important part in the development of that document, which outlined the freedoms and rights of ordinary people for the very first time.
How to reach : Trains frequent from Blackfriars station in London to St Albans which should take about 50mins to reach. Cathedral is a 15min walking distance from the train station.
Food : The periphery of the cathedral has lot of eateries where one can sit down with a book and enjoy a good English meal or if one prefers can bring in a packed sub from the street leading to the cathedral and relax in the lawns around the church under a shade of a tree.
For more info : Wiki