Great Northern Works

Great Northern Works is the office headquarters of Ekins and Company Ltd, designed by James Farley, a director of the company, and completed in 1908. The building features a brick structure covered by stucco and artificial stone, with Welsh slated and flat roofs behind a parapet.

The exterior presents a symmetrical facade with two-storey ends and a long single-storey centre, designed in the Italianate style. The end pavilions have a rusticated ground floor, a plat band, fascia, and cornice, with blank parapets that conceal the Welsh-slated roofs. The centre section projects forward and is adorned with closely spaced wooden sash windows featuring plate glass on both the ground and first floors. The entrance doors are half glazed above two panels, located to the left of the windows.

The centre features an arcade with stucco Tuscan columns forming a loggia with five bays, flanked by responds on either side, arranged in a 1:2:2:1 column pattern. An entablature includes a lower fascia, a deep upper fascia cornice, and a parapet. The recessed front has wood pilasters that respond to those of the arcade, with timber windows; two to the left of centre are triple full-length with mullions, transoms, and square upper lights with radiating glazing bars around a central circle, while two to the right are similar but have late 20th-century blank lower panels. The centre bay features twin leaf timber half-glazed doors with a fanlight above. The rear elevations are constructed with fletton brickwork and include a basement and an excavated area.

Historically, the building is located on the approach to the former Cowbridge Station, which was demolished around 1980. It takes its name from the Great Northern Railway, which served Hertford from 1858. Since its construction, it has been the headquarters of the local building contractor, Ekins & Co, and continues to serve that purpose.