The Salisbury Arms

The Salisbury Arms

Inn, now hotel. This building originates from the early 15th century, with significant alterations and extensions made in the early 17th century (around 1600), mid-17th century, early 19th century, and mid-20th century. It is timber-framed and plastered, with a front featuring restored late 19th-century pargeting and restored 17th-century pargeting on the Church Street side. The frontage block has a low-pitched, hipped Welsh slate upper roof above a moulded eaves cornice; the wings are covered with steeply pitched old tile and machine tile roofs. Tall red brick chimneys, built in Flemish bond, rise from the structure, topped with square tapered cream terracotta and orange clay pots.

The building follows the characteristic inn plan, with a rear courtyard accessed through the east wing from Church Street, and a long west wing stretching along Bell Lane (formerly Cow Lane).

Exterior

The frontage presents three storeys and three bays, raised from two storeys and attics in the early 19th century. The structure retains a jettied front and sides. The first floor contains three canted oriel bays with 8:12:8-pane sash windows (the centre window having 8:16:8 panes). The left and right oriels feature curved spandrels below and shallow lead flat roofs above moulded cornices; the centre oriel has a canted spandrel below its roof. Above these windows, ornamental pargeted strapwork panels display interlaced initials "S.A." at the sides and the date "1570" at the centre. The oriels continue through the second floor with 6:12:6-pane sashes and a plain upper spandrel and cornice forming part of the main eaves cornice. Flush-set 9-pane sash windows appear left and right on the second floor. The ground floor, now flush with the upper front beneath the original jetty, has recessed triple 3:9:3-pane sash windows on both sides. A central entrance features 8-panelled twin leaf outer doors with early 20th-century curved plate-glazed doors within.

The left (north) and right (south) flank elevations are jettied with curved bracket tops to dragon posts visible at the corners, and further curved brackets appear on the north elevation below bressumer level. Irregularly spaced flush-set sash windows occupy all floors. The entire frontage block is covered with late 19th-century panelled pargeting, which includes four modelled fleur-de-lys in lozenges on the first floor front and modelled vine and grapes running along the bressumer. A plain rendered plinth runs beneath.

The east wing, facing Church Street, dates to the late 15th century. It presents two storeys and two bays, jettied, with two and three coupled 19th-century sash windows on the first floor and two coupled and three single sashes on the ground floor. Restored 17th-century pargeting features a pattern of quoins at the left and around the first floor double sash window, with raised blocks along the bressumer.

The long west wing, early 17th century in date, faces Bell Lane. It is two storeys and jettied, with five large irregularly spaced flush-set 12-pane sash windows on the first floor and 19th-century mullion and transom multi-light wood casements on the ground floor. The west wing is jettied on both sides and incorporates a first floor gallery, now closed in. The courtyard was progressively infilled during the 19th and early 20th centuries. A large two-storey bedroom wing with attics and an old tiled roof was constructed along Church Street in 1973–4; it is built in red brick with sash windows featuring rubbed brick arches.

Interior

The interior has been substantially altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. The ground floor east bar contains heavy exposed beams with a dragon beam in the ceiling; other exposed studwork represents partly late 20th-century reinstatement. The west front bar features a plain late 18th- or early 19th-century panelled dado. Chamfered beams with tongue stops are visible in the west wing. The vestibule contains an 18th-century curved bow window facing the entrance. Against the chimney to the east stands a mid-17th-century dogleg stair to the first floor, featuring heavy carved newels with pilasters and rustication and balusters of similar patterns, a chamfered close string, and a heavy moulded rail. An 18th-century dado with moulded roll rail frames the staircase, while an early 19th-century landing incorporates stick balusters and moulded hardwood rail.

First-floor rooms display heavy chamfered and tongue-stopped beams. The middle room retains a length of 18th-century wood cornice. The west wing features a cornice with triglyphs and exposed heavy beams exhibiting chamfer, stop, and concave tongue.

An early 19th-century newel stair with stick balusters provides access to attic bedrooms within the roof structure, which is not accessible. The cellar has a concrete floor and largely 20th-century brick lining; medieval stonework reported in an earlier list description was not observed.

Historical Note

The Salisbury Arms has always been among Hertford's most prominent historic inns. It was recorded as The Bell in 1431 and acquired its present name around 1830 following purchase by the Marquess of Salisbury. It served as Tory headquarters during the notorious 1832 election; the Duncombe (later Dimsdale) Arms, located further east in Fore Street, was used by the Whigs, whose candidate was Tom Duncombe.

The building has undergone substantial alterations over the centuries. A late 18th-century engraving by Rowlandson depicts a structure with twin gables, a central attic dormer with Serliana, overhanging mullion and transom oriels, and florid pargeting—features no longer visible.