View source

{{Box|icon=[[File:HillStreetSign.jpg|center|100px]]|header=Hill Street|picture=[[File:HillStreetBox.png|center|350px]] <br/>Jerripedia editor [[Mike Bisson]]'s mother, Marguerite Rimington, (left) and schoolfriend Vi Le Maistre in Hill Street in 1930<br/>|intro=Hill Street is one of the oldest roads in the town of St Helier, and has probably the largest list of former names to prove its antiquity. At one time or another the street was known as Rue des Trois Pigeons, Rue de Haut, Rue des Forges, Rue du Pied de la Montagne and Les Calvins}}
[[File:TP20HillStreet1897.jpg|center|800px|thumb|<div class="center">The lower end of the street in 1897. A sign remains for the Grand Hotel du Calvados which had moved to a new location after a fire destroyed most of the interior of the building</div>]]

Hill Street runs from [[Snow Hill]] to the junction with [[Church Street]] (the corner of St Helier Parish Church), where it becomes [[Mulcaster Street]] and continues to [[the Weighbridge]]. It starts as an open area with a wide pavement on one side and a grassy bank on the other, leading to Snow Hill car park, which used to be the site of the St Helier terminus of the [[Jersey Eastern Railway]], but soon narrows as it passes through two lines of largely old buildings, now providing office accommodation. This was never a major shopping street and today there are no shops left.

After the junction with [[Halkett Place]] the road passes along the back of the [[States Building]] before reaching the Town Church.

[[Jean Le Capelain]], one of Jersey's most famous artists, lived in the street.

Throughout the 20th century Hill Street was synonymous with the island's legal profession, most of the main lawyers' practices being situated there. The enormous growth in the size of these practices means that they have almost all moved away from Hill Street into large office blocks elsewhere in the town and only three or four of the smaller practices remain in their traditional home.

It can be seen in several of the property profiles - links below - that lawyers who had individual businesses in a property would merge into a partnership over the course of time.

Otherwise Hill Street is home to a variety of small finance centre operations, recruitment agencies, and, at the Snow Hill end, bars and take-aways which provide refreshments for the office workers in the vicinity.

The road has long been a one-way traffic route, flowing from east to west, and is still a busy artery carrying traffic from all parts of the town and its periphery towards the Weighbridge, where it divides to head east through [[the Tunnel]] or west along the [[Esplanade]]. 

As today's English name, and the former Rue du Pied de la Montagne suggest, the road runs at the foot of Mont de la Ville (Town Hill) on which [[Fort Regent]] was built in the 19th century.

*[http://www.vingtaine.org/plaques/HillSt.html Commemorative plaque]

==Individual property profiles==

{|
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
|-
|[[No 2 Hill Street|No 2]]
|[[No 6 Hill Street|No 6]]
|[[No 8 Hill Street|No 8]]
|[[No 10 Hill Street|No 10]]
|[[No 12 Hill Street|No 12]]
|[[No 14 Hill Street|No 14]]
|[[No 16 Hill Street|No 16]]
|[[No 18 Hill Street|No 18]]
|[[No 20 Hill Street|No 20]]
|[[No 23 Hill Street|No 23]]
|}
{|
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
!scope="col" width="120" |
|-
|[[No 26 Hill Street|No 26]]
|[[No 27 Hill Street|No 27]]
|[[No 29 Hill Street|No 29]]
|[[No 31 Hill Street|No 31]]
|[[No 31½ Hill Street|No 31½]]
|[[No 35 Hill Street|No 35]]
|[[No 37 Hill Street|No 37]]
|[[No 47 Hill Street|No 47]]
|[[No 49 Hill Street|No 49]]
|}
==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery  widths="300px" heights="200px" perrow="4" align=center style= "color: darkgreen;font-family:garamond;font-size:12pt;font-weight: normal;text-align:center;font-style: italic;letter-spacing: 1px; cellspacing= 30px;padding: 20px 20px 30px 20px;">
File:HillStNowDemolished.jpg|This property was demolished in the late 20th century
File:16HillSt1985MduF&J.jpg|16 Hill Street in 1985 - Mourant du Feu and Jeune
File:20HillStreet1953.jpg|20 Hill Street in 1953
File:24HillSt1985.jpg|24 Hill Street in 1985
File:34HillStreet.jpg|34 Hill Street
File:35HillStreet.jpg|35 Hill Street
File:4HillSt1965.jpg|Described when sent to us as 4 Hill Street in 1965. We think that this is incorrect, and that either the date or the location are wrong
File:HillStreet14a.jpg|
File:W20No31HillStreet.jpg|No 31
File:W20No47HillStreet.jpg|No 47
File:W20No49HillStreet.jpg|No 49
File:F21HillStreetFerbrache.jpg|Ferbrache Antiques, now demolished ....
File:G21WalkersHillStreet.jpg|... and the building it made way for
File:F21HillStreet.jpg|
File:F21HillStreet2.jpg|
File:W20HillStreet.jpg|20 Hill Street
File:27HillSt(onceCalvadosHotel).jpg|27 Hill Street was home to the Grand Hotel de Calvados after a fire in the earlier building on the corner of the Royal Square and Church Street
File:U23HillStreet1963.png|Taxi rank in 1963
File:FT24HillStreetBus1973.png|JMT bus in 1973
</gallery>
</center>
[[File:FT23SnowHill.jpg|center|800px|Looking towards Snow Hill, with the entrance to the former Eastern Railway terminus up the slope on the right]]


[[File:Businessicon.png|left|80px]]
==Hill Street businesses==
<center>
<gallery  widths="300px" heights="200px" perrow="4" align=center style= "color: darkgreen;font-family:garamond;font-size:12pt;font-weight: normal;text-align:center;font-style: italic;letter-spacing: 1px; cellspacing= 30px;padding: 20px 20px 30px 20px;">
File:Al14AdBenestGP.jpg|G P Benest ran an auction and furniture depot business in Hill Street in the mid-19th century
File:Al14AdBenestAuction.jpg|
File:AlAdBenestAuctioneer.jpg
File:Al14AdBott.jpg|Bott or Botts, the paperhanger and decorators' supplies business operated from 18 Hill Street in the mid-19th century
File:Al14AdBotts.jpg
File:Al15AdJohnGrossMerchant.jpg|
File:Al14AdScottishProvincial.jpg|Scottish Provincial Assurance
File:E16Laurens1894.jpg|G D Laurens, 1894
File:JC16AdJerseyPolish1852.jpg|
File:JC16AdImperialFire1905.jpg|
File:JC16AdGuaranteeTrust.jpg|1966
File:JC16AdBrownSweep1905.jpg|1905
File:JC16AdBriardDebts1905.jpg|1905
File:JC16AdBottsPaperHanging1886.jpg|1886
File:B16AdGodfrayPhotography1895.jpg|1895
File:Sc18AdJBD1948DeVeulle.jpg|1948
File:Sc18AdJBD1948Homefinders.jpg|1948
File:GM21Ad1873BritishPressAlmanac38.jpg|1873 advert
File:GM21Ad1887Almanach27.jpg|1887 advert from ''L'Almanach de la Gazette de Jersey''
File:Gm21Ad1897Godfray.jpg|1897
File:GM21Ad1896GodfrayPhotos.jpg|1896
File:E18BellinghamAdvert.jpg|Bellingham's started as Jersey's first travel agent, at 6 Mulcaster Street, in the early years of the 20th century, and then moved to No 1, on the border with Hill Street. In about 1950 they moved again to 31 Hill Street, before moving to the corner of [[Queen Street]] and [[Bath Street]] in the late 1950s. 
File:GM21JerseyIndependent1862BishopHillStreet.jpg|In 1862 Bishop and Co's Percy House in Hill Street sold ladies' fashions and household linen. In 2021 there was not a single retail outlet in the street, running from [[Snow Hill]] to [[Mulcaster Street]]