Details
HERTFORD
TL3212NE FORE STREET
817-1/17/90 (North side)
10/02/50 No.119
The Red House
GV II*
House, now offices. Mid C18, with C19 alterations. Red brick,
laid to Flemish bond, stucco dressings, wood cornice, hipped
old tile roofs with lead rolls above moulded modillion cornice
and eaves gutter. 4 multi-flue external brick chimneys with
oversailing courses and earthenware pots. Central stair
double-depth plan.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with linked single storey pavilion
outbuildings with hipped Welsh slated roofs left and right.
Front elevation has chamfered corners with single window left
and right, centre with single sash window left and right, on
1st and 2nd floors, 12-pane and 6-pane, recessed in brick
reveals under rubbed flat arches, with stucco sills. Centre
has canted bay, with brick base, 3 sashes, 8:12:8-pane with
moulded cornice and hipped lead roll roof to first floor, and
Diocletian lunette with arched 6-pane sash in centre and blank
stucco side panels on second floor. Ground floor has single
window on chamfered corners, left and right, and single window
left and right on main facade, all recessed 12-pane sashes,
the latter recessed in arched recess, and with continuous
stucco plat band and head level with triple keyblocks. Brick
screen wall links to pavilions left and right with stone
coping at first floor sill height on main building, and the
plat band running across and around the pavilions left and
right, each with 1 recessed 12-pane sash on front elevation.
Centre of main building has 6-panel door (upper four with
leaded glazing with Arts and Crafts pattern) recessed in
architrave surround beneath central porch with Tuscan columns
and responds, and entablature with projecting cornice,
supporting bay window above.
Right-hand pavilion has an irregular plan, and incorporates
substantial beams from a C17 timber-framed floor structure
internally. Right-hand flank elevation has two 4-light wood
mullion and transom casement windows, with multi-pane
cast-iron upper lights. Left-hand pavilion has Palladian
window towards rear of flank elevation, with Tuscan pilasters,
frieze and cornice, and sash windows with mid C18 quadrant
profile glazing bars.
Rear elevation has irregular fenestration with flush ground
floor and recessed sashes beneath segmental arches first and
second floor to left, canted bays on ground and first floor,
the latter raised above the ground floor original, with single
recessed sash on second floor to right, centre with C19 half
glazed door having 4 panes and margin glazing beneath C20 flat
canopy, and 12- and 6-pane sashes recessed beneath segmental
arches to 1st- and 2nd-floor landings.
Single-storey brick lean-to with tiled roof to left,
single-storey weather-boarded outbuilding with Welsh slated
roof to right.
INTERIOR: narrow central entrance hall, with arch to rear
staircase hall now blocked by late C20 fire door. Ground floor
right-hand front room has heavy moulded architrave to door
with carved leaf band and bead roll; window architraves
similar; dado with moulded rail above panels, recessed, some
with carved leaf surrounds, others plain quadrants; wood
dentil frieze and cyma recta cornice; fireplace with early C19
cast-iron grate with trellis pattern surround, white marble
surround and wood outer surround with egg-and-dart architrave
and dentil frieze and egg-and-dart cornice. Early C19 8-panel
doors to rear room. Front room left of entrance hall has plain
C19 joinery, with white marble fireplace with mid C19
cast-iron grate with modelled rococo scrolls around arch;
double doors to rear room which also has C19 gothic pattern
cast-iron grate. The rear left-hand (west) room has the
Palladian window noted externally, which has a vaulted ceiling
above the arched central window, with a modelled cornice
surround. The rear hall has an open well plan with late
C18/early C19 staircase which rises to the second floor.
Newels with narrow panels, and Chinese Chippendale style
balustrades, open string, nosed treads with profiled brackets,
curtail tread at foot, moulded handrail with caps to newels at
foot of flights, ramped up at intermediate landings.
First floor landing with double cyma profile wood cornice, and
opening with panelled Tuscan pilasters, and semicircular arch
with keyblock. Former principal bedrooms opened left and right
from vestibule beyond arch, now infilled with firedoor. Front
left-hand (west) room has Art Nouveau cast-iron grate in C19
white marble surround; double doors to rear room which has
early C19 cast-iron hob grate. Central dressing room, over
entrance hall, has cyma cornice, and 6-panel door leading to
right-hand (east) from bedroom, with C19 rococo style
cast-iron grate.
4 attics on second floor, exposed heavy section timber binder
along central spine wall; rear attic sash windows have heavy
quadrant glazing bars. Double roof with peg-jointed king post
trusses with carpenters' assembly marks, purlins supported on
struts and butt-jointed common rafters without ridge board;
coach nailing of valley rafters. Cellar has concrete floor,
plaster lining and brick columns to support ground floor.
HISTORICAL NOTE: this house was occupied by the owner of
Young's Brewery, whose premises lay to the rear and along
South Street, from 1754 until 1897 when it, and the brewery
land, was acquired by Christs Hospital prior to their
rebuilding after the turn of the century.
(Hope Bagenal: The Georgian and Post Georgian Buildings of
Hertford: 1929-: 9-10; Hertfordshire Countryside: Moodey G:
Georgian brickwork of the choicest sort: Letchworth:
1946-1973: 26; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N:
Hertfordshire: Harmondsworth: 1977-: 191).
Listing NGR: TL3289612698
