10 And 12, Railway Street

10 and 12 Railway Street are houses with ground floor shops, dating from the early to mid 19th century, with the shops possibly being a later addition. They are constructed of yellow brick laid in Flemish bond, featuring stucco dressings and a Welsh slated roof with bracketed eaves.

The buildings rise to three storeys. The first and second floors each have two widely spaced triple sash windows, arranged in a 4:12:4-pane configuration, recessed in reveals under rubbed brick flat arches, and equipped with stucco sills. At the ends, there are brick pilasters topped with stucco band capitals. The ground floor includes a 19th-century shopfront on the left, which has a plate glass window with four ventilating hoppers above, and an early 20th-century brown glazed brick stallriser. The shopfront features an inner pilaster surround and a glazed door on the left with a margin-glazed fanlight above. The outer and central brick pilasters have stucco impost bands, which are now colourwashed, and are topped with entablatures containing fascias for the shopfronts, along with a moulded stucco cornice that projects above the pilasters. The right-hand shopfront is an early 20th-century design with a moulded timber frame around a plate glass window.

Inside, the buildings have crosswall construction with substantial timber beams, suggesting that the ground floors have always remained open without subdivisions. There is a simple newel staircase towards the rear, with plainly finished rooms above, and brick-lined cellars. Together with Nos 6 and 8 Railway Street, this development highlights the increasing significance of shops in mid-19th century Hertford.