The Dolphin Public House

The Dolphin Public House is a former station hotel, now a public house with flats above, dating from the late 1880s. It has undergone alterations in the 20th century, including a modern extension and internal changes. The building is constructed of red and grey brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with stone dressings. It features a plain clay tiled roof and grey brick chimneys with red quoins and a moulded brick cornice. The architectural style is Free Queen Anne.

The three-storey facade facing Railway Street has three bays, with a one-bay return and a two-bay gable facing Mill Road and Hertford East Station. The outer bays of the Railway Street facade feature projecting stone mullion and transom windows; the lower sections are plain glazed, while the upper sections have leaded glass. These windows are topped with shouldered cornices containing pediment heads. The second floor features timber mullion and transom windows with segmental heads recessed within a grey brick pilaster surround and a rubbed brick arch. The ground floor has semicircular headed sash windows beneath arches constructed with bands of red and grey rubbed brick. A large central stone mullion and transom window has double moulded impost blocks and a semicircular arch with alternating dripmould and channelled stone keyblock. A stucco parapet sits above a moulded cornice. A projecting arched porch has red brick piers with a deep grey band, a moulded impost block, an elliptical arch with alternating red and grey brick voussoir bands, a grey brick fascia, a moulded cornice, and a balcony with turned sandstone balusters and a moulded rail.

The east elevation facing Mill Road has a single window on the first and second floors, recessed within a grey brick panel and flanked by red brick pilasters. The two-bay gable has a Dutch attic with curved stone copings, brick piers with ball finials, and a central triangular pediment above the parapet. It has two windows to the first and second floors, each with three lights, stone mullions, transoms, leaded upper lights, and moulded grey brick spandrels. Grey brick blind panels are located above, under semicircular arches with alternating red and grey brick voussoir bands, with a channelled keyblock supporting a moulded cornice at the base of the pediment and parapet. Projecting pilasters are present on the left and right sides, and in the centre, with a moulded band at the second-floor level and below the second-floor window heads. The ground floor incorporates an arched entrance to the left, and a 20th-century flat-roofed single-storey bay with sash windows and a 20th-century entrance in the centre.

The interior consists of bars that have been opened out and fitted with 1970s fixtures. The upper floors have not been inspected.