Details
HERTFORD
TL3212NE BLUECOAT AVENUE
817-1/17/12 (North side)
10/02/50 Former Dining Hall, Christ's
Hospital (part of Chauncy Court)
(Formerly Listed as:
FORE STREET
Dining Hall, Christ's Hospital)
GV II
School dining hall, now converted to elderly persons flats.
c1800, refaced and extended with addition of ground floor
loggia, 1904-6. Internally subdivided and converted to elderly
persons flats (Chauncy Court) 1988-89. Architect, Alexander
Stenning.
MATERIALS: south elevations orange-red brick, Flemish bond,
with Portland stone dressings, west and north elevations
yellow stock brick with stone dressings. Welsh slated hipped
and gabled roof, with modillioned stone cornice to south
elevation, pediment end to south projecting wing; brick dentil
cornice and pediments to west and north elevations.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys; main block originally with double height
dining hall on first floor. 6-bay south front, left-hand 3
concealed by large first floor projection above loggia, and
south wing. Windows recessed in stone architrave frames with
eared imposts and archivolts broken by moulded scroll
keystones. Multi-paned windows with glazing bars following
arch profile are modern replacements, with blank lead-faced
panels to correspond with inserted second floor. Stone sills
with brick aprons with lower profile of upright and inverted
shouldered elliptical arches; ground-floor windows recessed,
with archivolts springing from impost band. Square loggia in
centre, 2 x 2 bays with stone Tuscan Doric columns raised on
square bases, and responds. Entablature and cornice with lead
flashing, red brick above, 2 windows x 2 windows, 24-pane
sashes, recessed beneath rubbed arches with stone keyblocks,
and moulded stone cornice to parapet concealing flat roof.
To left is south projecting wing, 2 storeys, 2 windows ground
and first floor, recessed paired 12-pane sashes beneath rubbed
arches with stone keyblocks, gabled pediment with moulded
stone surround above, and central red brick chimney with stone
cornice.
West elevation 2 and 3-storey, yellow brick with stone imposts
and plat band to south projecting wing, brick plat bands
elsewhere: modillioned pedimented end to former dining hall;
lower banded pediment to 3-bay west projection below, sash
windows of various sizes, with 2 semicircular arched windows
on ground floor of south projecting wing (at right).
Rear (north) elevation has yellow brick facade of former
Dining Hall on left, 2 (now three) storeys, with 6 arched
windows on first floor, with lead faced blank panels
concealing inserted second floor. Brick plat band at
first-floor level. Ground floor has 2 sash windows with
semicircular arched heads springing from stone impost band,
and 3 mullioned multi-paned windows in similar openings.
At right is 3-bay 3-storey west wing, 3 sash windows on each
floor with brick plat bands and brick banded cornice. At left
is rear entrance, added in 1950s, 2 storeys, light red brick,
with sash windows, semicircular plan partly concealing first
left-hand bay of former hall.
INTERIOR: much altered during 1980s conversion, when woodwork
from Newgate Street previously noted on list was presumably
removed. Ground floor loggia previously contained a monument
of 1716 with stone pedestal and bust to Thomas Lockington,
from Church of St Mary Magdalen, Fish Street, London. The
northern staircase added in the 1950s is cast-concrete with
terrazzo facing, open string construction with wrought-iron
handrails in which elongated double scrolls alternate with
stick balusters. The floor has the Bluecoat Crest in terrazzo.
This building formed the Dining Hall to the Boys', and
subsequently Girls' School until 1984.
(Turnor L: History of Hertford: Hertford: 1830-: 323-331;
Victoria History of the Counties of England: Hertfordshire:
London: 1902-1912: 491; Royal Commission on Historical
Monuments (England): An Inventory of the Historical Monuments
of Hertfordshire: London: 1910-: 113-4; Hope Bagenal: The
Georgian and Post Georgian Buildings of Hertford: 1929-:
10-11; Hertfordshire Countryside: Morrison J: Bluecoats in
Hertfordshire: Letchworth: 1946-1954: 62-3; The Buildings of
England: Pevsner N: Hertfordshire: Harmondsworth: 1977-: 188;
Page FM: History of Hertford: Hertford: 1993-:
58,59,97,122,125-6; Felstead A: Directory of British
Architects 1834-1900: London: 1993-: 872).
Listing NGR: TL3290912824
