2, SALISBURY SQUARE (See details for further address information)

This is a building of houses with shops, dating from the early to mid-19th century, with alterations in the 20th century. It is located on Railway Street in Hertford, and includes the property at No. 2 Salisbury Square. The construction uses yellow-brown brick in a Flemish bond pattern, with stucco dressings. The roof is slate, with bracketed eaves and a hipped section over the splayed corner at the right (west) of No. 2 Salisbury Square. A yellow brick chimney stack has a projecting band and six tall orange clay pots.

The exterior is three storeys high. The first floor has three irregularly spaced 12-pane sash windows, recessed under rubbed brick flat arches and set above a stucco sill band. The second floor has four square voids; three contain 9-pane sashes, while the second from the left is a dummy window, all with stucco sills. The splayed corner has a recessed area on the first floor, featuring a rubbed brick semicircular arch, with a dummy window recess on the second floor.

The return elevation to Salisbury Square features two first-floor windows and one window and dummy at the right on the second floor. The ground floor shops vary in design; No. 8 has a 19th-century shopfront with a closed plate glass window in a moulded timber frame, above a glazed tile stallriser, and a half-glazed door above a stone step, recessed in a projecting surround. The fascia has a flat-modillioned cornice. No. 6 has a cut bracketed doorhood above a 20th-century glazed door, and a plate glass display window replacing a former sash window, with colourwashed brickwork above a stucco plinth. The corner shopfront of No. 2 Salisbury Square has been renewed with late 20th-century small-paned windows and a glazed door with a pilaster surround and pediment; the surrounding masonry is stuccoed and colourwashed below the first-floor sill band.

The interior has not been inspected.

This development, along with Nos. 10 & 12 Railway Street, reflects the increasing importance of shops in mid-19th century Hertford. No. 2 Salisbury Square is included on the list for the first time.