The Old House is, perhaps, Hereford's most significant landmark. Built in 1621 - and therefore easily 150 years older than the United States of America - it has watched over all the comings and goings in Hereford's High Town these last four hundred years:
The first (known) photograph of the Old House in 1873 - when Ulysses S. Grant was President of the USA - and the Old House contained an ironmongers and potteryware business, run by Mr and Mrs Oatfield, happily co-existing with Fletcher's fishmongers. Note Maddox's Furniture Showrooms in the background:
This looks as if it was taken about the same time (possibly the same day) but from a slightly different angle. A better view of the Victorian advertising hoarding that then covered one side of the building (including an advert for the "Midland Railway"):
Two later Victorian views (one coloured, both undated) put the Old House in context. To the left, at the top of Commercial Street, is the Capital & County Dining and Refreshment Rooms. To the right, in St. Peter's Street, Maddox's Furniture Showrooms continues to trade. Mr and Mrs Oatfield and Fletcher's Fishmongers have gone from the Old House, so these photos must post-date 1882, when the building was taken over by the Worcester City & County Banking Company (subsequently taken over by Lloyds Bank):
Another Victorian view, but time has moved on. Maddox's Furniture Showrooms in St. Peters Street has become a hairdressers, the appropriately named W.H.Dyer. The Imperial Cafe in St. Peters Street (obscured by the Old House) seems to believe in very prominent advertising, no doubt to compete with the City & County Dining and Refreshment Rooms:
Two further shots, both undated but one coloured, probably taken around the turn of the century or very early Edwardian times. Theodore Roosevelt is, or is about to become, President of the United States:
Now for some 'reverse views' of the Old House, with the camera situated in St. Peters Street, facing the gable end of the Old House that had housed Fletcher's Fishmongers, and High Town in the background:
 |
| High Edwardiana, probably just pre WW1. The first appearance of cars. The Imperial Cafe on the right. |
 |
| The same view, but a little closer up. The early 1930s. Background High Town is practically unchanged apart from the new Lloyds Bank building to the left of the Buttermarket Clock. Lloyds moved out of the Old House and presented it to the City Corporation in 1928. |
 |
| The early to mid 2010s. Cars have gone once again, High Town having been "pedestrianised". Otherwise little has changed architecturally in nearly 100 years. The shops have moved on, though - the Imperial Cafe is no more, W.H.Dyer is forgotten, and the Capital & Counties Dining & Refreshment Rooms, to the right of the Old House, has become "Starbucks". Barack Obama is President of the USA. |
And a last look at the Old House in the context of Hereford, a view from 1815 (President of the USA - James Madison) and a triptych view of the City from 150 years later, the late 1960s (President of the USA - Lyndon Baines Johnson):
 |
| A watercolour of "Butcher's Row" from 1815. The three gabled building in the centre is the present Old House, showing how buildings have been demolished around it over time. |
 |
| Clockwise from right top - the new road bridge (built in 1966), the glamorous modernity of the newly pedestrianised "Eign Gate Shopping Precinct" and the Old House. Quite what the Victorian Mrs Oatfield would have made of the orange mini-skirted Herefordette is anyone's guess.... |
