Walk 5006 - printer friendly version

St Helier Town Trail, Jersey Walk

Author - Jersey Tourism

Length - 2.0 miles / 3.3 km

Ascent - 0 feet / 0 metres

Grade - easy

A circular tour exploring the history, architecture and development of the town. St Helier takes its name from a Belgian Monk martyred on Hermitage Rock in St Aubin's Bay in 555 AD. St Helier is the Island's capital and main shopping centre, with more than a third of the population living in it.

Liberation Square - The walk starts in Liberation Square, outside the Jersey Tourism office. This 1901 building was the railway terminus for the line to St Aubin, which operated from 1870 to 1936. Liberation Square was opened by Prince Charles on the 9th May 1995 to mark the 50th Anniversary of the end of the Occupation. The design of the square signifies freedom, with a sculpture by Philip Jackson as the centrepiece.

Above looms Mont de la Ville and Fort Regent, built 1804-1814, now a leisure centre. You can see the signal-mast, which is hand operated and still used for warnings of storms, gales and high tides.

Leave the Square via Weighbridge Place and Mulcaster Street with the Southampton Hotel to the left, and the Royal Yacht Hotel to the right. Until the end of the 18th century this area to the churchyard was beach. Land was reclaimed and is still being reclaimed today.

Mulcaster Street - Named after Captain Mulcaster, who refused to surrender Elizabeth Castle prior to the Battle of Jersey in January 1781, note the Lamplighter tavern on the right, which is an early 19th century merchant's house.

Bond Street - Turn left into Bond Street, so called because the merchants' houses had cellars in which bonded stores were held. Note the typical sash windows, the restored shop-front of the lawyers' firm on the corner with Hope Street, and the long paving stones on the churchyard side, formerly consecrated ground. Seashore until the late 1700's with a sea wall extending from here along Broad Street to the west. Turn right into the churchyard.

Town Church - Look for the small stone slab in the grass on the right, the tomb of Baron de Rullecourt, leader of the French invaders in 1781. Major Peirson, the victorious commander, is buried inside the church. Dating from the 10th century, the rector is also the Dean, head of the Island's twenty-two Anglican churches.

Church Street - Leave the churchyard into Church Street. Notice the street sign "Church Street, Rue Trousse Cotillon", meaning "bundle up your petticoat" - there used to be a small stream flowing down this lane.

Royal Square - Cross over into Royal Square. This was the market place (Le Vieux Marchi) until 1802. Look for the name of the Red Cross ship 'VEGA:, spelt out in granite by Le Guyader in December 1944, while making repairs to the square. The building nearest this point, with the wide balcony, is the 17th century Corn Exchange, now the Registry Office where visitors and locals alike can get married. On the roof above, a sculpture of standards, cannon, and drum, marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Jersey, 6th January 1781.

Looking clockwise around the square from here, the police station is in the old picket house, a military guardhouse, formerly the meat market. The sundial is by Elias Le Gros, local mapmaker, mathematician and teacher, from the time of George Ill, whose initials are on the top of the drainpipe.

The 17th century houses in Vine Street have changed very little, but notice the tiled roofs - thatch was banned in the town in 1715 - and the Insurance Company's mark on the wall of Gallichan's jewellers, indicating that the building was insured in case of fire (insurance companies had their own fire brigades).

The Battle of Jersey - The battle took place in the Royal Square on 6th January 1781, between 600 French invaders and British troops comprising Scottish Highlanders and Jersey Militia. It was a short but fierce battle in which both commanders were killed. Victory went to the British, the last land battle to be fought on British soil.

Advocates and their clients often gather after Royal Court sittings in the Peirson or The Cock and Bottle, alongside the Jersey Chamber of Commerce (1768), the first in the English speaking world.

The south side of the Square contains the States Chamber and the Royal Court with the coats of arms of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and of George II, over the doorways. In front of the old library is a bronze bust of Lord Coutanche, Bailiff of Jersey during the war, and a plaque to Maistre Wace, the 12th century poet who wrote in Norman French.

King George II - The gilded lead statue (restored 1998) is of George II, who in 1750 contributed £ 200 towards harbour improvements. George was the last English King to ride into battle.

The small bronze button on the bottom left of the granite plinth is a bench-mark, from which distances in Jersey are measured.

The diorite stone platform beneath the statue was used for proclamations. It was from this stone that Charles II was proclaimed King of England in 1649, following the execution of his father, Charles I.

King Street and Halkett Place - Leave the Royal Square via Peirson Place. Turn right into King Street (Rue de Derrière), the main shopping thoroughfare. At the far end of Halkett Place notice the contrasting architectural styles of ornate early and plainer late-Victorian design, 1930's Art Deco and the brick and cement of the 1970's.

This was the centre of mediaeval St Helier, of which virtually nothing remains. Regency and Victorian developers laid the present-day foundations. Halkett Place, named after Sir Colin Halkett, present at the Battle of Waterloo (1815), and a former Lieutenant Governor, was a central feature of Regency St Helier.

Notice the imposing Wesley Grove Methodist Church (1847) at the far end of Halkett Place, the new States offices in Molier House (1998), and the States Chamber, where the Island's parliament meets every other Tuesday.

The Market - Cross into Hilgrove Street, the cobbled lane known locally as French Lane, where Breton farmhands used to gather. Notice the cobweb fanlight above the door of the Prince of Wales pub on the left. Enter the market through the decorated gates and find the fountain in the centre, amongst the many stalls displaying flowers, fresh fruit and locally grown vegetables. The fountain is by Abraham Viel, one of three identical fountains built by John Dyson in Yorkshire. One can be found at Ironbridge in Shropshire, the other was lost at sea en route to Australia.

The market moved to this site in 1802. The present building was constructed in 1881 as part of the Battle of Jersey centenary celebrations. Designed by Thomas Halliwell, there are 37 cast-iron columns supporting a once-glass roof weighing 80 tons.

Outside the Post Office, close to the central fountain, is the first pillar-box of its kind in the British Isles (Anthony Trollope, 1852). For a few pence the Weights and Measures Office next door offers a personal weighing service.

(NB If the market is closed, return to Halkett Place, turn right, then second right into Burrard Street and rejoin the tour at the back entrance of Beresford Market.)

Leave the market via Market Street, on the same side as the Post Office, then turn left into Halkett Street. Cross over to the Beresford Market.

Beresford Market and Minden Place - The fish market has been on this site since 1841, but the present building is from the 1930's. Fresh fish, and shellfish in particular from local waters, are always on display. The dolphin fountain (1992), was carved from one block of rough Jersey granite by Frank Gautier, a local stone-dresser.

Leave the fish market by the Minden Place exit and turn left. A plaque on the wall on the left commemorates Captain Le Geyt, the first Postmaster General, and the Battle of Minden in 1759, still remembered each year by the wearing of dog-roses.

Burrard Street - The end corner of the Jersey Telecoms building is another example of 1930's Art Deco. Walk now into Burrard Street. General Burrard, successor to the Duke of Wellington, gave land to the town in 1812 to provide access to the markets. The windows of the 19th century Thesaurus bookshop on the right are original.

At the next junction, (Halkett Place), notice the large granite slabs in the pavement covering the town stream (Le Grand Douet) which still flows under St Helier to the sea.

Halkett Place (north) - The Mechanics' Institute, built in 1873, is in Halkett Place to the right. This was the Post Office from 1881 to 1909. Notice the ornate decoration and oculus window. The modern library building next door was opened by the Queen in 1989. Wesley Grove Church (1847) was designed by Philippe Bree, who was paid one pound sterling per week to supervise the construction.

Return to Burrard Street and turn right. This becomes Union Street. Continue towards Cyril Le Marquand House about 300 metres further on. Watch out for the very rare cobbles in the narrow Waterloo Lane on the left.

New Street - NB At this point, walkers may wish to break off and return to Liberation Square by making their way down New Street to the Obelisk in Broad Street, and into Conway Street. Notice examples of modern architecture along New Street, office buildings provided for Jersey's finance industry.

Cyril Le Marquand House - Jersey's tax revenues are collected here. Income tax, which even locals have to pay (!), was introduced in Jersey in 1928.

General Don and Parade Gardens - Turn now into the Parade Gardens, a late 18th century regimental parade ground. General Dods statue is the centrepiece. General Don was Governor of Jersey during the Napoleonic Wars and was responsible for building Fort Regent and many of the Island's wider roads.

Beyond the statue is All Saints Church built, like several others in the 1830's, as a chapel of case as the town expanded. Notice the Free French Croix de Lorraine at the very end of the park, a gift from General de Gaulle in recognition of Jersey's help during the evacuation of St Malo in June 1940.

General Hospital - Return now along The Parade side of the gardens towards the town centre. The General Hospital is on the right. Founded in 1767, the original budding was used as a barracks until 1793 and burned down in 1859.

Cenotaph - At the town end of the gardens is the Cenotaph (1923). Remembering the fallen from two World Wars, including 126 boys from Jersey's Victoria College alone, it resembles the Cenotaph in Whitehall in London.

Town Hall - The French Imperial-style St Helier Town Hall, formerly a fire station, was built in 1872. The Town Hall is the administrative centre of St Helier, the office of the Connétable (the mayor) and of the Honorary Police.

Back now in the older part of town, notice the 17th century buildings with their steep roofs and granite chimneys, particularly in Dumaresq Street, and their more ornate Victorian neighbours.

Charing Cross and Broad Street - Continue through Charing Cross, the site of St Helier's first prison (1693), at the point where the road narrows. The prison was like a city gate, straddling the road, with a dungeon for debtors below the road. The granite cross was placed here in honour of the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth 11.

A sea wall ran along Broad Street (La Grand' Rue) as far as the cemetery wall of the town church.

At the end of Broad Street is the main Post Office, built in 1909 during the reign of Edward VII, whose mistress was Lillie Langtry, the Jersey-born actress and singer, buried in the cemetery of St Saviour's Church. The Obelisk opposite honours Peter Le Sueur, five times Constable of St Helier in the 1840's, who built the town sewer system still in use to day.

This is the centre of the Island's finance industry, with international banks on every corner, some in impressive late Victorian and early Edwardian buildings.

Library Place - Continue briefly into Library Place. The corner known as 'Le Coin-Anes' was where donkeys were held for market, while a little further along, opposite the old library building (1738) was 'Le Coin-Cochons', for the pigs.

Return to Broad Street and turn left into Conway Street, named after the Governor who built most of Jersey's coastal towers in the 1780's. This road was built in 1786 to provide access to the town from the seashore. At the corner with Bond Street, there was a fulling mill powered by the town stream.

Continue along Conway Street to Liberation Square and the end of the walk.

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