Gravesons

Gravesons is an early 18th-century house, now a department store, with alterations from the 19th century and later. It is located in the Market Place, Hertford, and includes the property at No.8 Salisbury Square. The building is timber-framed and plastered with a stuccoed ground floor. The roof was originally hipped on the right-hand side but is now concrete tiled above a coved eaves cornice.

The south elevation, facing the Market Place, has six bays with windows spaced somewhat irregularly. The right flank (east) elevation, facing Salisbury Square, has three bays. The building is three storeys high with attics. The first floor of the south elevation has six slightly recessed 12-pane sash windows with projecting moulded architraves. The second floor has two flush-set 12-pane sash windows on the left, the remaining windows being slightly recessed. Rusticated quoins mark the ends of the elevation. The ground floor has a late 19th-century shop front with modified plate glass windows, panelled pilasters and consoles at the left and right, a canted fascia, blind box and moulded cornice at the level of the first-floor sill.

The right flank (east) elevation has three flush-set first-floor windows with moulded projecting architraves, replacing earlier sashes with plain glazing and upper lights above transoms. The second floor has three flush-set 12-pane sashes. The ground floor shop front is late 19th century, with modified plate glazing, a fascia with scrolls and panels below the left and right first-floor windows, and a moulded cornice. Moulded plaster cornices flank the lines below the fascia. The stuccoed walls have rusticated quoins at the outer corners, and a stucco plinth is lined with a stallriser. Three box casement dormers (centre 3-light) are on the front, with one on the right-hand flank facing Salisbury Square.

The interior has been largely remodelled and opened out to create retail showrooms; the remaining structure is covered by shop fittings. The rear (north) wall on the ground and first floors was opened out into a late 19th-century extension that occupies the site of Nos 1 and 3 Maidenhead Street.

Historically, the drapery trade in Hertford was dominated by the Pollards, Robinsons, and Gravesons, all Quaker families. In the late 18th century, Graveson and Robinson joined forces, and the Graveson family took full control in 1899, shortly after the new premises at the corner of Maidenhead Street and Salisbury Square (Nos 1 & 3 Maidenhead Street) were constructed.