1 AND 3, SALISBURY SQUARE (See details for further address information)

The buildings at 1 and 3 Salisbury Square, Hertsfordshire, are a shop and storage property with early to mid-19th century facades, concealing an earlier 17th century timber-framed structure. The building was comprehensively reconstructed between 1983 and 1984, with the facade facing Bull Plain largely rebuilt. The exterior is of yellow stock brick laid in Flemish bond, topped by a hipped, Welsh slated roof. The Salisbury Square elevation has two bays with chamfered corners. The first floor has a recessed 12-pane sash window to the left and a triple 4:12:4 pane sash window to the right, both set beneath rubbed brick flat arches. A corner section features a 12-pane and a 6-pane sash window on the first and second floors respectively. The Bull Plain return elevation has two 16-pane sashes, each with a blank panel below a rubbed brick flat arch. The second floor has two squat 8-pane sashes. A late 20th century shopfront now occupies the ground floor across the full width of the Salisbury Square elevation, extending along Bull Plain with display windows framing a contemporary shopfront. The shopfront features simplified pilasters with console brackets to the fascia, slender mullions dividing the display windows, arcaded heads to the main run, panelled timber stallrisers, and a 20th-century twin-leaf half-glazed door. The mid/late 19th century shopfronts and half-glazed door previously noted are no longer present.

The interior was remodelled between 1983 and 1984, losing the staircase and rear windows. A plaster ceiling on the first floor and the front shop space, which was previously single-story, are now two stories high. An exposed timber truss and structural framework, previously noted, has been partly reset. The lower ground floor, reached by three steps down from the main level, occupies the former location of No.2 Bull Plain and is reinforced with 20th-century propped beams, featuring a longitudinally chamfered section with a tongue stop. A partition on the first floor displays reset studwork and late 20th-century bracing, with 17th century primary bracing along the return wall to Bull Plain. Second-floor rafters and purlin supports, previously noted, remain, along with some gable studwork in the partition between the former No.2 Bull Plain and No.1 Salisbury Square. Pegged studwork, rafters, and a collar are exposed in the party wall to No.4 Bull Plain (not included in the listing). The remainder of the second floor is of late 20th-century construction.

The building retains group value and special architectural interest due to the survival of modified and reset 17th-century timber framing, combined with its prominent position along the street frontage. No.2 Bull Plain was first listed on 18/07/1983.