Details
HERTFORD
TL3212NE FORE STREET
817-1/17/77 (South side)
12/04/73 No.80
Dimsdale House
GV II
Inn, subsequently public house, now university residence.
Early C19, with late C19 alterations and extensions. Stuccoed
brick front, yellow-grey gault brick, Flemish bond, and part
timber-framed and weatherboarded rear wings. Hipped Welsh
slated roof concealed by parapet, former moulded eaves cornice
now removed, brown brick chimneystacks with tall orange clay
pots.
EXTERIOR: 3-storey, 4-bay frontage block with carriageway
access to rear courtyard flanked by long narrow wings. Front
elevation has full height pilasters at left, and to right
between 3rd and 4th bays; first and second floors have windows
spaced 3:1, first-floor 16-pane sashes, second-floor 12-pane
sashes; plat band at second-floor level, at first-floor level
full width late C19 cast-iron balcony carried on brackets with
frontal panels with bamboo leaves and sunflower motifs, with
upright balusters with fleur-de-lys finials, in centre a
taller pierced frontal with cast-iron lettering 'Dimsdale
Arms'. Ground floor has arched doorway at left, with recessed
glazed screen with double leaf half-glazed doors, 2 recessed
sash windows with leaded light glazing and stone sills, in
centre bays, and at right carriageway with elliptical arch
above impost band.
Rear elevation with plate-glazed sash windows central
projecting canted oriel bay with triple sash, on first floor,
leaded mullion and transom windows on ground-floor level.
Right-hand (east) outshut with flush-set and recessed sash
windows on first floor, wide projecting bay with leaded
mullion and transom windows and flat roof at left and 12-pane
sashes beneath segmental brick arches elsewhere.
Former stable wing to left (west), jettied first floor with 4
flush-set windows with cornice heads, irregular spacing of
doors and windows recessed in colourwashed brick ground floor,
dark stained weatherboard (south) end.
INTERIOR: former bar areas disused at time of inspection;
upper floors converted to student residence 1992. Entrance
hall has C19 mosaic floor and fireplace, and late C19 stair,
Jacobean style, with close string, newels with strapwork and
ogee ornament, hardwood rail, and curtail steps. Bar areas
with early C20 brick fireplaces and panelled dado, C19 bar
counter, altered and extended 1920s. Upper floors gutted and
refurbished during recent conversion.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the Dimsdale Arms was originally the Duncombe
Arms. Thomas Slingsby Duncombe represented the Borough of
Hertford as MP from 1826-32, and came from Yorkshire. He took
part as Whig candidate in elections in 1826, 1830, 1831 and
1832, controversial and corrupt occasions, with each candidate
employing gangs of armed ruffians, and Duncombe, who used the
inn as his headquarters reputedly spent »40,000 on five
elections in Hertford. He saw the Reform Bill through
Parliament but was defeated in December 1832, after an
election which was investigated by the Committee of
Parliamentary Privileges who unseated the Tory victors, and
then refused to sanction a by-election until 1835.
Duncombe disappeared from Hertford, but sat as MP for Finsbury
until his death in 1861.
The inn was renamed after one of the most distinguished
Hertford families: Dr Thomas Dimsdale had pioneered
inoculation in the 18th century, and had been created a Baron
of the Russian Empire by Catherine the Great. In the mid C19
Thomas, 4th Baron Dimsdale was prominent in Tory politics.
(Forrester H: Timber-framed buildings in Hertford and Ware:
Hitchin: 1964-: 9; Green L: Hertford's Past in pictures: Ware:
1993-: 96-7; Page FM: History of Hertford: Hertford: 1993-:
152-7).
Listing NGR: TL3277012573
