36 And 38, St Andrew Street

This is an early 18th-century house, originally built as a single dwelling, later subdivided into two shops with showrooms above. Situated on St Andrew Street in Hertfordshire, it has undergone alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed of red brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with an old tiled roof, originally an "M" double roof shape. A square yellow brick chimney stack is prominently positioned on the right side of the roof ridge.

The front facade has four bays, and the placement of the central chimney suggests a lobby entry plan, though this is obscured by subsequent alterations and the 19th-century subdivision into two separate properties. The upper floor features four flush-set 12-pane sash windows with architrave surrounds, positioned closely together with wide jambs on the left and right. The ground floor now has a full-length 20th-century shop window on the left, which replaces an earlier 19th-century window and retains a pierced cast-iron vent panel above. A twin-leaf glazed door with a beaded frame, reeded top rail, and blocked fanlight provides access to number 36. To the right, a flush-set 16-pane sash window is located next to a blank window recess, and further right is a late 19th-century shop front with plate glass window above a stuccoed stallriser, and a plain timber surround, a three-quarter glazed door, a fascia board, and a blind box. The roof includes two box casement dormers located at the front and rear, set above a deep 20th-century fascia with a modillioned eaves cornice.

The rear elevation has three mullion and transom windows with small-paned casements and dead lights. A blocked opening for a fourth window is visible in the centre, next to a small 20th-century 6-pane casement at a high level. Ground-floor extensions run along the rear, built with timber and weatherboard cladding and slate roofs. One is a single-story structure on the east side, and the other is a two-story, long, narrow structure with black weatherboarded end on the right.

The interior has been significantly altered and opened up. In the ground-floor room of number 36, there is a chamfered beam with run-out stops. Number 38 appears to have originally comprised two, possibly three, large rooms and retains a large fireplace with an 18th-century surround, an oak bressumer, a 19th-century brick inner grate with molded corbels, and a newel dogleg winder staircase alongside the fireplace. The first floor has four-panel doors, with large square upper and lower panels, and two small central panels, featuring small bolection moldings and H-hinges.

The roof was completely renewed in sawn timber, with the original "M" valley replaced by a central crown flat. A cellar contains a plastered vaulted tunnel at the west, with a fire alongside the newel stair leading to the ground floor.