The 250-foot high hill stretches from St John's Road in the north to West Park in the south and then westwards towards Bellozanne, although it is the south and east facing edges which are usually recognised today as Westmount.
As George Balleine wrote in his Bailiwick of Jersey, it was as Gallows Hill that Westmount was known to most islanders, and still is to some, although it is almost 200 years since the last public hanging took place there in 1829.
- "Four gaunt pillars crowned the hill, where a little summer-house now stands, four to show that these were the King's gallows. Seigneurs who had hanging rights were allowed only two. At first these pillars were of wood, but in 1632 they were replaced by columns of solid granite at the request of the eloguent aootrney-general, who amused the Court by pleading: 'Then they will last for ever and serve for us and our children.'
Executions took place on market days and were proclaimed in all the churches on the previous Sunday. They were frequent, and held in public so that the deaths of the unfortunate, whose crime may have been as trivial as the theft of an item worth more than a shilling, would be an example to others.
There were three quarries at Westmount. One, known as Horseshoe Quarry was cut into the south face above St Aubin's Road and the Lower Park beyond. By the mid 18th century this had been turned into a small public garden, which remains there today, although few islanders know where it is or have visited it. Further towards West Park another quarry provided the land on which West Park Pavilion, now replaced by a block of apartments, was built in the 19th century, and rebuilt and extended in the 20th. The third quarry was at the northern end of the eastern face of the hill.
Before: looking north from Westmount at the quarry
Later: the bowling green, with trees screening the quarry below
Now:The new housing development being built in the quarry
There was also a copper mine in this area, which was turned into an air raid shelter before the German Occupation. The site of the original gallows, which was turned into a summerhouse after executions ceased, was in turn converted by the Germans into a machine gun post, but in 1989 this substantial granite and concrete structure, whose position had been rendered unsafe after a landslide during the storm of October 1987, had to be demolished.
Early photographs show a gazebo-like structure on the summit of Westmount, which was in Victorian Times an extensive walled property, Westmount House, owned by Francois Voisin.
Below Westmount to the east is People's Park, which was the venue for many public events in the early 20th century, including the Muratti and Upton Park football matches.
1968
View over St Helier from Westmount
Looking down on Strangers Cemetery
Strangers Cemetery
Children at Westmount
Westmount memorial
Horseshoe Quarry
Crowds on Westmount in 1902 watching the first Battle of Flowers on Victoria Avenue below. The postcard has the number 1892 on the front, which has been confused for a date, but is actually the serial number of the card, published by J Welch and Sons
Pine Walk
Children at Westmount in 1913
1870 photograph of the quarry by Baudoux
The air raid shelter in the old copper mine
Looking down on the bowling green
Horseshoe Quarry photographed by Baudoux in the 1880s
An Albert Smith photograph of Horseshoe Quarry in the snow
The German machine gun post
Westmount Quarry photographed by Baudoux
Westmount covered in a sprinkling of snow in 1938
The Strangers and Garrison Cemeteries
Westmount viewed from the sea. Bathing huts and people sitting in deck chairs on West Park beach. The J C A West Park Pavilion (previously known as the Tin Hut) is in the background and the walled estate of Westmount House is on top of hill
Another photograph showing the extensive boundary wall of Westmount House on the skyline
Victoria Avenue and West Park Pavilion covered with snow, with gazebo in walled estate of Westmount House belonging to Francois Voisin on top of hill
The southern end of Westmount, with West Park Pavilion below and Triangle Park bandstand in the foreground
The summerhouse
View across West Park area to St Helier Harbour and Fort Regent from Westmount in the 1880s. The Marine Hotel and Baths in the middle, later the site of the Grand Hotel, with derelict site covered in rubble and timber alongside, part of West Park station in construction, and the bare site of Traingle Park
Looking out over St Helier in 1870
The view from the top in 1870
View from St Helier Harbour in the early 20th century
The western end of Westmount approaching Bellozanne
Gardens
Westmount Lane in 1967
The entrance to the Westmount copper mine was opposite the bowling green. It was reopened in 1939 to be used as an air raid shelter, and sealed again a year later
1910
Strangers Cemetery, Westmount, where the crematorium was built
The 'cholera grounds'
'Witch's Hat
The 'summerhouse structure' on the south side of the Westmount slope was reinforced as a defensive installation by the Germans during the Occupation but in later years was deemed to be unsafe and was eventually removed
