Cheapside

Cheapside

Arch erected for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Photograph: Albert Smith

Cheapside is one of the western gateways to St Helier. Developed for housing in the 19th century, it was previously an area of sand dunes beyond the Parade

Sand dunes

Cheapside's position on the edge of the town made it a logical place to erect ceremonial arches on important occasions, and two of these were the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, and the Coronation of her grandson, George V, in 1911.

There are some fine Victorian houses in the area, little changed since the day they were built, but these are largely around the corner from Cheapside itself, along West Park Avenue and St John's Road, which adjoin it at its western end.

Today Cheapside extends from the junction with Kensington Place, Elizabeth Place and the Parade westwards to the foot of St John's Road and then around the corner to the start of Peirson Road, which continues down to the Esplanade alongside the Grand Hotel. Before Peirson Road was named in honour of the hero of the Battle of Jersey, the road was known as Cheapside as far as the coast

On the 1843 Le Gros map, Cheapside turns the corner and runs down to the coast at West Park, but there are only a handful of properties at the upper end and below them there are still sand dunes. What is now New St John's Road was known as York Place, and West Park Avenue and Parade Place did not exist. There were gardens and meadows between Cheapside and Roussel Street. There was very little development on either side of Rouge Bouillon, then known as William Place

Gallery

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Old St John's Road junction

The junction of Cheapside, West Park Avenue and New St John's Road, before the Great War, in the latter part of the 20th century and today. The shop was an outlet for the bakery of Herbert Albert Freeman, who was in business at 1-5 New St John's Road from before the Second World War until 1960

Businesses

An early 20th century advert for West End Stores. Few Jersey businesses would now boast about charging London store prices

The grocery store founded by George Bisson ...

... and how the building looked decades later, changed very little