88-96, FORE STREET

HERTFORD

TL3212NE FORE STREET 817-1/17/81 (South side) 10/02/50 Nos.88-96 (Even)

II

House, now offices. Early C18, heightened early C19,ground floor remodelled early C20 with mid C20 shopfront. Dark plum red brick, laid to Flemish bond, with cherry red dressings, stuccoed rear elevation, tiled roof, above wide overhanging eaves with slender bracket modillions and panelled soffit. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 7-bay front, with narrow central bay. First floor has 6 flush-set 12-pane sash windows beneath rubbed brick flat arches, and quoins in cherry red brick. A central fielded panel is set in raised moulded border, with a moulded cornice band above window. Second floor with 6 lower flush-set 12-pane sashes. Ground floor remodelled but retains vestige of former continuous first-floor level moulded plat band visible at extreme right and left. Wide plate-glass display windows between blue engineering brick piers, central plate glass doors, with deep, almost full width fascia above. The original ground floor was raised above a basement, with sash windows, and a bold pedimented doorcase immediately right of centre. INTERIOR: much altered and opened out with ground floor lowered to street level across front range of double-depth plan. Stair at rear renewed 1950s, west and first-floor room has double cyma wood cornice, window seats, but no shutters, and fireplace has been removed. This was possibly the principal bedroom. No features of note visible on second floor. (Smith JT: Hertfordshire Houses: Selective Inventory: London: 1993-: 85; Green L: Hertford's Past in pictures: Ware: 1993-: 15).

Listing NGR: TL3278712602