Former Station Hotel

The former Station Hotel was built in 1843 as a railway hotel by the Eastern Counties Railway, with an extension around 1850, and later additions and 20th-century alterations. It is constructed of yellow-brown stock brick, with a stucco plat band at the level of the first-floor window sills, and a stucco eaves cornice. The roof is covered with Welsh slate, and yellow brick chimneys extend throughout the building with oversailing courses.

The hotel is two storeys high, with basement cellars partly exposed at the rear due to the sloping ground level. The original block is L-shaped, with a convex curved section filling the space between the arms, and a curved ground-floor loggia featuring Tuscan Doric antae. A central door is flanked by semicircular-headed windows, originally the main entrance. A sash window sits above, recessed in brick reveals beneath a rubbed flat arch.

The east elevation has two sash windows on both the ground and first floors. The south elevation includes two recessed sash windows on the first floor. A flat-roofed projection from the early 20th century is present on the ground floor, built of brick with a stuccoed, pantiled plinth, red brick pilasters with recessed stucco panels, a deep stucco fascia, and a red brick dentil course with a moulded cornice. Three semicircular-headed windows have stucco pilaster surrounds, Tuscan capitals, and keystones. A recessed entrance is on the left, with a splayed return and a semicircular-headed window on the right, featuring leaded light glazing. A two-storey extension was added to the west around 1850, set approximately 1.5 metres from the original building on the first floor; this appears to have included a basement kitchen. This extension features a stucco eaves cornice matching the original building, a Welsh slate roof, two recessed sash windows, and a central blind recessed panel, all beneath rubbed flat arches. A flat-roofed projection from the 1950s is present on the ground floor. A further two-storey extension is located at the rear, with the ground floor raised a half-level above the main building. The interior was altered in the early 20th century, when a projection was built to create a lounge bar, retaining its early 20th-century fittings, and again in the 1950s when the ground floor was opened out from the original entrance to create a larger public bar.

A similar Station Hotel exists at the Great Eastern Tavern, Railway Street, Hertford.