The Saracens Head Public House

HERTFORD

TL3312NW WARE ROAD 817-1/18/237 (North side) No.45 The Saracen's Head Public House

GV II

House, now public house. Mid C19, extended late C19. Yellow stock brick, Flemish bond, ground floor orange-red glazed brick, Flemish bond. Hipped Welsh slated roof, with yellow brick chimneys with oversailing courses and cream terracotta pots. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. First floor has 3 recessed 12-pane sash windows beneath rubbed brick flat arches, on east elevation facing Railway Place, 2 to Ware Road elevation. Ground floor has late C19 flat roofed extension wrapping around corner in red-orange glazed brick. This has moulded cornice, stone coping, and ornamental cast-iron arcade headed plate glass sash windows, stone lintels with chamfered arrises, C20 glazed door and sidelight substituted right-hand side of Ware Road elevation. Double and triple windows facing Railway Place. Entrance on corner with half glazed door with margin glazing and arcaded top bar, rectangular fanlight above, exposed lintel. Fascia has 2 modelled swags, flanking pilasters, moulded caps and cornice and semicircular brick arcaded, stone coped upper panel with a modelled and coloured 'Saracen's Head' against a background of raised scrolled vines, leaves and grapes. Cast-iron voluted finial above. INTERIOR: 2 bars with simply detailed central servery, walls with boarded dados. Upper floor not inspected. HISTORICAL NOTE: north of the Ware Road was developed from the 1840s following the opening of the Eastern Counties Station at the head of Railway Place. The 'Saracen's Head' was probably built as a house, although it is shown as a public house on the 1870s First Edition Ordnance Survey. The front extension was probably built shortly after the 1898 updated map, the last on which it does not appear.

Listing NGR: TL3332812857