12, West Street

This is a mid-18th century house with a mid-19th century rear wing, located in West Street, Hertford. The front of the building is constructed of yellow brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with orange-red brick dressings and some areas of tuck pointing. The rear wing is of red brick with an old tiled roof beyond the parapet, featuring stone coping. A tall red brick chimney with banding and orange clay pots is situated at the east side. The roof to the rear wing is hipped and slated, and it extends partially behind the adjacent property at number 10.

The house has a three-bay front with a side entrance and a tunnel on the far left (west) that provides access to the rear garden. The rear facade has four bays, partially overlaid on the east side by the rear wing. The front of the house is three stories high with a basement, while the rear wing is two stories high. The first floor has three nearly flush-set 12-pane sash windows with architrave surrounds, set within red brick flat arches, with a plat band above. The second floor has three squat 12-pane sashes with a moulded red brick cornice above red brick flat arches. The ground floor features two 12-pane sashes in the centre and to the right, also with a plat band above flat arches. A 6-panelled door with an ogee traceried Gothic fanlight sits in the left-hand bay, accompanied by panelled reveals, pilasters with cut profiled consoles supporting a cornice hood. The side door to the tunnel has four panels, a plain frame, and a red brick flat arch above. Full-height red brick quoins frame the jambs of all the windows.

The rear elevation is of red brick with segmental arched brick window heads. The rear wing contains 19th-century sash windows and French windows. A single-story timber-framed wash-house with a pantiled roof stands on the rear, containing a fireplace and pump inside.

The interior includes a dining room on the ground floor rear, featuring an 18th-century moulded wood cornice, triple sash windows with shutters, and a panelled dado. The drawing room in the rear wing has a mid-19th century plaster cornice with scotia moulding, a bead, an Acanthus flower cove, a scroll with a honeysuckle band, and a white marble fire surround with Tuscan pilasters. A dogleg staircase features a closed string, stick balusters, and a moulded handrail; a similar back staircase includes a 2-panelled access door. First floor rooms have raised and fielded 4-panel doors with moulded wood cornices. An east-facing front bedroom on the first floor features a 19th-century plaster cornice, shutter boxes with panelling below, and a 19th-century white marble fire surround with a cast-iron grate. The attics are accessed via 2-panel doors with H-hinges in arched architraves, incorporating a moulded wood cornice in the large front attic. The basement has a dogleg staircase, a front room with a kitchen range, and three cellars beneath the 19th-century rear wing, featuring red brick floors. The roof contains riven rafters, a thin ridge board, and collars supporting side purlins.