Queen Street

Queen Street

Decorated for the coronation in 1953

For a long time somewhat in the shadow of King Street, at its western end, Queen Street is part of St Helier's main town centre pedestrian precinct and is today, as it has been for many years, a major shopping street

Queen Street, looking east, in the 1930s

Just as nobody is certain which monarch King Street was named after, the same is true with the origins of Queen Street. Neither merits a mention in Balleine's History of Jersey. Raoul Lempriere's Buildings and Memorials of the Channel Islands suggests that the street was named after Queen Charlotte, the consort of King George III, after whom King Street was reputedly named. That would put the change of name to some time between 1782 and 1818.

Edmund Toulmin Nicolle's The Town of St Helier records that Queen Street was at some time known as Rue du Milieu (the middle street) and Rue es Porcqs, after the family Le Porcq who lived there. The only other reference is to the presence of the General Post Office in the street for a short time.

Commercial development

The street began to develop as a commercial centre in the early years of the 19th century. The first years for which any reliable records of businesses operating there exist are 1833 and 1834, when The Strangers Guide to Guernsey and Jersey and Abraham Le Cras' Guide to the Island of Jersey were published. They did not give full listings of traders operating in St Helier streets, but between the two it is possible to assemble a reasonably accurate picture of those on either side of Queen Street.

Since the properties in the street were first given numbers - probably in the 1810s or '20s, those on the south side have carried even numbers, and those on the north, odd numbers. Unlike many streets in the centre of St Helier, there have been no changes to the basic numbering, apart from the introduction of some half numbers when properties were subdivided.

Although King Street and Queen Street are today separated by Halkett Place, which runs from north to south between the two pedestrianised streets, Queen Street was in existence before Halkett Place was constructed. There was a junction before then, however, with Morier Lane connecting the ends of King Street and Queen Street with Hill Street, and Hilgrove Street emerging on the opposite side.

Property histories

Jerripedia has traced the history of traders and families along the length of the street from 1833 to the present day in two articles, covering the two sides of the street:

• A history of Queen Street traders - 1, odd-numbered properties
• A history of Queen Street traders - 2, even-numbered properties

and now we have detailed histories of individual properties:

Christmas shopping in 1936

Planning officers' record

The first set of pictures was taken by planning officers in 1968 as part of a project to record all the town streets

• 

  The junction of Queen Street and Halkett Place in 1925

• 

  1953

• 
• 

  1953

• 

  1970s

• 

  Boots

• 

  Boots

• 
• 

  The street in 1897

• 

  Queen Street in 1907 photographed by Albert Smith

• 

  1920s

• 

  George D Laurens, one of Queen Street's most popular shops until its demolition in the 1970s

• 

  The street in 1935

• 

  Queen Street in 1936

• 

  Queen Street in 1936

• 

  German troops march up Queen Street in the Occupation

• 

  Boots in 1950

• 

  Queen Street in 1955

• 

  The shop on the corner of Queen Street and Halkett Place, now Goldsmith, has been home to various jewellers over the years

• 

  Queen Street corner with Bath Street

A Henry Allix photograph

• 

  Queen Street in 1963

• 

  1968

• 

  1968

• 

  1970s

• 

  The street in the 1970s

• 

  The corner of Queen Street and Bath Street in 1971

• 

  Queen Street pedestrian precinct

• 

  Queen Street at night in 2005

A hand-tinted photograph of Henry Allix's shop in Queen Street

Father Christmas outside G D Laurens in the 1930s

1970s

Queen Street businesses