Theobalds Park College

Theobalds Park College, originally known as the Middlesex County Council Secondary School, is a Grade II* listed building located in Waltham Cross. It was constructed in 1763 for George Prescott and later extended to the north and south by the Meux family in the early and late 19th century. The building is made of red brick with Portland stone dressings and features slate roofs. It stands three storeys tall and has a five-window entrance front facing west, which includes a slightly projecting pedimented center with a balustraded one-storey portico and first-floor Venetian windows. The structure has a modillioned cornice and a parapet, with forward-curving one-storey colonnades leading to small outer wings that also feature brick modillioned cornices and pediments facing the courtyard.

The east garden elevation boasts a full-height canted window bay, with ground floor and first-floor flanking Venetian windows. The balustraded parapet and bracketed cornice continue with the north and south early 19th-century additions, which have large ground floor Venetian windows supported by paired Greek Ionic columns. There are further late 19th-century extensions on the north side that share similar architectural details. The south end of the building features a five-stage French Renaissance style square tower, characterized by banded stone courses and applied pilasters on the fourth and fifth floors, along with shell-headed windows and a terracotta frieze with stone balustrading.

Inside, the building has a notable entrance hall on the west side, which is divided by Venetian screens with Adam style detailing. The central ceiling is adorned with grotesque painted designs, and a semicircular staircase is located to the north. The east center room contains impressive reused early 17th-century arcaded panelling, featuring Corinthian half columns, foliate ornamentation, and figured console brackets. The north room on the east front showcases a richly detailed early 19th-century deep coffered octagonal plan ceiling.