Luton
Luton maps (2 available)
Map of Bedfordshire
Beautifully hand-drawn and coloured, dating from around 1840
See this old map of Bedfordshire
Personalised maps
Create an historic map centred directly on any postcode!
Luton books (7 available)
Luton - A History & Celebration
Hardback
So You Think You Know? Luton
Hardback
Bedfordshire Living Memories
Paperback
- 40 photos on Luton appear in 2 Frith books - View photos of Luton
- Read extracts and see photos from these books on Luton and Bedfordshire
Luton memories
Read and share memories of Luton and Bedfordshire inspired by Frith photos
Grandad's shop
My Grandad Thomas Poole owned a wallpaper & paint shop in Wellington Street, my Mum who is now 82 can remember the day the war was announced, my Grandad threw open the windows and turned up the radio so everyone in the street could hear it. Does anybody remember the shop or have any photos of it?
Contributed by Dianne Dallison
Conservative Club on Market Hill
My father was a member of the Conservative Club pictured here, and I fondly remember going down to the club to have a bag of crisps and an orange juice while waiting for him to finish meetings inside. I used to sit in the hallway (you can see the entrance to it as the arch) and remember there was a beautiful grandfather clock on the first floor landing which I used to go and admire. I have now inherited a grandfather clock, and it always reminds me of when I fell in love with the one in the club. In the late 1960s, I was photographed by the Luton News pulling a cracker with my best friend at ...read more here
Contributed by Karen Searson
Bedfordshire memories
Conservative Club on Market Hill
My father was a member of the Conservative Club pictured here, and I fondly remember going down to the club to have a bag of crisps and an orange juice while waiting for him to finish meetings inside. I used to sit in the hallway (you can see the entrance to it as the arch) and remember there was a beautiful grandfather clock on the first floor landing which I used to go and admire. I have now inherited a grandfather clock, and it always reminds me of when I fell in love with the one in the club. In the late 1960s, I was photographed by the Luton News pulling a cracker with my best friend at ...read more here
A memory of Luton contributed by Karen Searson
Grandad's shop
My Grandad Thomas Poole owned a wallpaper & paint shop in Wellington Street, my Mum who is now 82 can remember the day the war was announced, my Grandad threw open the windows and turned up the radio so everyone in the street could hear it. Does anybody remember the shop or have any photos of it?
A memory of Luton contributed by Dianne Dallison
Extracts From Luton & Bedfordshire books
Viewed from the Corn Exchange on Market Hill, Luton’s main street on a summer’s day just before the turn of the 19th century gives little indication of the importance of this thoroughfare. The ornate stone monument in the foreground - known locally as The Pepperpot - is the Ames Memorial, dedicated to magistrate and landowner, Lt Col Lionel Ames. Note the ‘stop me and buy one’ ice-cream cart placed in its shadow. The building at the far end of George Street is the first Town Hall, opened in 1847.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".
Hat manufacturers and accessory wholesalers occupy most of the buildings shown in this reverse view to 39699 (page 22). The crates all contain hats, possibly being delivered to the relatively new railway depot for trans-shipment. The Corn Exchange, sitting on Market Hill in the far distance, was opened in 1869 and also served as the Court Leet, public meeting place and concert hall - in addition to its prime function.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".
This open space at the junction of the roads leading to Hitchin, Wheathampstead and London was large enough to support the open-air market, which stretched the 100 yards through the middle of the picture from the Corn Exchange through to Park Street. The shops on the left were originally dwelling houses dating from 1760. Note the wide pavements - an indication of the ‘quality’ of the area.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".
Many of the business on Wellington Street were trading until well into the second half of the 20th century. Certainly the pharmacy on the right existed in the 1950s, and the early form of department store sporting external gas lighting on the left of the street was a source of haberdashery and household linens during the same period. Wellington Street was also the site of Luton’s first cinema, located in one of the buildings on the crest of the hill; it opened in the early 1900s.
An extract from from"Bedfordshire Photographic Memories".
William brought with him 5,000 knights,
the new aristocracy. When he died the
country was still 90% Saxon; the Normans’
policy, like the Romans’, was ‘divide and
rule’, with the majority of England’s two
million people subject to the Norman fist.
His successor, Henry II, gave the manor of
Luton to his illegitimate son Robert, Earl of
Gloucester, and a new church was built south
of the present St Mary’s. Henry also gave land
to the monks to build a hospital and chapel
on Farley Hill. Another hospital, the House
of God of the Virgin Mary, was founded by
Thomas Beckett on a hill between the old
Vauxhall car factory and Luton Airport.
An extract from from"Luton - A History & Celebration".