1, Fore Street

This is an early to mid-19th century publishing house and printing works, now used as offices. The front facade is stuccoed and colourwashed over brick; the sides and rear are of brown brick laid in a Flemish bond pattern, all beneath a Welsh slated mansard roof. A parapet front, from which the balustrade was removed in the mid-20th century, is present, along with parapeted ends and a tall brick stack with four clustered shafts located right of centre.

The building is three storeys and attics high, with a basement, and has a five-bay front. The first floor features four long sash windows with divided glazing, and central French windows also with divided glazing, topped by a two-light fanlight within a moulded architrave. A full-width balcony on this floor was removed in the mid-20th century. Projecting bands mark the first and second-floor sill levels; rusticated quoins are at the left and right sides, and flank the slightly projecting centre bay. The second floor echoes the first with four sash windows and a central set of French windows with a moulded architrave, originally supported by modelled brackets and modillions. A low balustrade and a moulded cornice extending above the second-floor windows were also removed in the mid-20th century.

The ground floor is rusticated, featuring five semicircular-headed openings. There are panelled double-leaf doors with semicircular fanlights on the left and right, and three recessed plate-glazed windows in the centre, each with a semicircular upper light and segmental arched spandrel panels, as well as recessed grille vents leading to the basement. Five box dormers with nine-pane sashes are set into the roof above the parapet front.

The interior has not been inspected.

From 1854, the building was the headquarters of Stephen Austin, a printer and publisher who began operations in Hertford in 1768. Through work for the East India College at Haileybury, Austin’s firm gained a reputation for foreign language printing. In 1772, the firm began publishing 'The Hertfordshire Mercury', and later sold the business in the late 1980s. A bronze statue of Mercury originally stood on the second-floor balcony. The main printing operation relocated to Ware in 1954.