Hertford Post Office

HERTFORD

TL3212NE FORE STREET 817-1/17/80 (South side) Nos.84 AND 86 Hertford Post Office

GV II

Post office. 1890. Architect H Johnson, Contractor H Norris. Orange brick front with limestone (Monk's Path Bath stone) dressings and decorative features. Rear outshut of yellow brick with red brick dressings. Welsh slated roof with central gabled panel, and cupola at left, ridge with ornamental iron railings between two turned wood finial posts, gabled roof over rear outshut. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys, 3-bay front with narrow half-width entry bay at left, central bay breaks forward above ground level. First floor has 7 elliptical-headed recessed sash windows, single window at left, remainder paired with antae between. Flanking pilasters with modified Corinthian capitals, elliptical rubbed brick arches with dripmoulds, entablature with carved swag frieze at second-floor level, and panelled frieze below sill level. Second floor has continuous arcade with Ionic colonnettes with semicircular arches above; pilasters at bay divisions with foliated caps, and frieze and moulded stone urns above pilasters. Central bay has gable with central carved panel, pilaster surround and curved gable; cupola at left, red brick pilasters with stone bands, 4 arched openings, and cornice with inverted consoles above, attic with 4 small arched openings, and curved hipped stone cap. Ground floor has former doorway at left, with stone architrave surround, 2-light fanlight with central colonnette, and segmental stone pediments; bays are separated by brick pilaster with stone bands and Tuscan caps. 2 recessed mullion and transom windows with elliptical heads, elliptical arches with alternating rubbed brick and stone voussoirs and projecting keyblocks. At right is similar arch opening to twitchell which runs alongside rear outshut. This is simply treated with sash windows with divided glazing, beneath red rubbed brick flat arches. Long single storey continuation of outshut, and late C20 flat-roofed extensions, the latter of no special interest. INTERIOR: much altered and opened out. HISTORICAL NOTE: Hertford Post Office occupies the site of The Chequer Inn, and Chequers Yard, congested, whose residents were badly affected by cholera in 1849. The site passed to the ownership of Hertford Poor Estate Charity, who decided to

redevelop it with the new Post Office, at a cost of »2000, which was then let to the Government Postmaster General for »120 per annum, and sold to the General Post Office after 21 years. The original entrance was from Fore Street, with the sorting office in the outshut behind, and a telephone exchange on the first floor. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Hertfordshire: Harmondsworth: 1977-: 190; Green L: Hertford's Past in pictures: Ware: 1993-: 15, 67).

Listing NGR: TL3277812599