28 AND 30, FORE STREET (See details for further address information)

A former inn on Fore Street in Hertford, now a shop with a flat above. The building dates from the early 16th century with 17th-century alterations, a partial rebuilding of the right-hand west flank elevation when Church Street was widened around 1800, and an early 20th-century refacing of the front with a new ground floor shopfront. The structure is timber-framed with a stuccoed front and pebbledashed flank elevation to Church Street; the rear is plastered with an old tiled roof.

The building comprises a 3-bay main timber-framed structure originally jettied to the street with a dragon beam and return jetty along Church Street, which was cut back during road widening. A 2-bay addition extends to the rear along Church Street, originally extending several bays further south. Together with numbers 32 and 34 Fore Street, the building formed a rear courtyard characteristic of medieval inns.

The exterior presents 2 storeys and attics. The front elevation features a central late 19th-century flush-set window with projecting moulded mullions, transoms and surround, subdivided into 3 lights above 2 with iron casements and plain glazing. Bordered stucco panels flank this window, with the infill to the gable above divided into ornamental mock studwork and pebbledashed panels. The ground floor early 20th-century shopfront is recessed under the jetty with beam ends exposed on the Fore Street frontage. Above this runs a broad canted fascia with console ends, which returns along the right west flank elevation to Church Street. The shopfront features plate glass windows with moulded timber-frame, green glazed brick stallriser, and a glazed door set back diagonally at the corner, supported by a slender cast-iron column.

The Church Street west flank elevation has on its first floor 2 large 9-light mullion and transom windows with projecting moulded timber-frames and plain-glazed iron casements, together with a 5-light casement with canted end and 17th-century wood surround with later wood casements with divided glazing. 19th-century 2-light wood casements occupy the right portion. The ground floor contains a 3-panel door with plain-glazed fanlight, paired double 19th-century flush-set plain glazed sash windows with projecting surrounds, a 4-panel door, and a triple central unit canted around the building line setback with 2 double 19th-century sashes.

The roof features a gable to the street with early 19th-century double bargeboards with serrated edges, moulded section under verge, and timber finial at ridge with iron circle and spike. A 2-light box casement dormer with divided glazing and moulded surrounds appears on the Church Street flank elevation. The roof is hipped at the rear over a staircase projection which overlaps numbers 32 and 34. A square red brick chimneystack stands at the centre rear, with a 19th-century stack on the upper ridge and an 18th-century red brick stack with oversailing course above the south party wall with number 5 Church Street. The rear south-east corner retains a vestige of a gallery with exposed framing dating to around 1500.

The interior has a ground floor shop opened out with a rear staircase of dogleg plan, featuring a newel with ball finial, close string, column on attenuated urn balusters, and moulded handrail. This leads to the first floor only with a 19th-century rooflight and an exposed beam with 19th-century arch bracing above the landing. The first-floor front rooms, spanning 3 bays, contain beams with quadrant bead surrounds and fanlight above. The 2 rear bays expose 16th-century structure including a post with long jowl and arch brace, and a bay window to Church Street with ovolo moulded mullions and exposed studwork with downward curving brace.

The roof over the front 3 bays has thin ridge and reset rafters, continuing partly over the lower Church Street range. This latter roof appears originally to have had purlins with windbracing, indicated by an empty mortice visible over the stair to the attic.