Little Berkhamsted House

Little Berkhamsted House is a large house dating to 1732, originally built for O. Lloyd, a Master of the Stationer's Company. Around 1790, it was raised and two pavilion wings were added for J. Bouchier. Further extensions and alterations occurred around 1820 for T. Daniell. The house is constructed of brown brick with red brick dressings, and has slate roofs. It is arranged with a double-depth plan, and originally had two storeys, now has three and a basement.

The main front has five bays. The central entrance features a six-panelled door with a radial traceried fanlight, set within panelled reveals and a Greek Doric porch with a triglyph frieze and mutules. A plinth runs along the base, and tall sash windows with glazing bars are recessed with gauged brick segmental heads. Red brick quoins are present, and a plat band runs above the first floor. Smaller sash windows are located on the second floor, and the parapet has been rebuilt. Four brick stacks are extruded, with continuous return parapets. The right end has first and second-floor sashes, and the left end has blocked openings.

The main block facing the garden is of all red brick, with a similar five-bay, three-storey layout. Stone steps lead to the centre, which may have originally been the principal entrance. A half-glazed door and fanlight are present here, along with a panelled reveal and architrave with consoles. To the right of the front is a single-storey pavilion, set back and featuring a 19th-century canted bay with French doors. A similar canted bay projects from the garden front, with three tall sashes having gauged brick flat arched heads and a dentilled band to the coped parapet. A hipped slate roof covers this element. An identical pavilion existed to the left but has been incorporated into a 19th-century service block, now with three bays and two storeys and a flat roof. This section incorporates both 18th-century red brick and 19th-century stock brick, and has flush frame sashes on the ground floor with a hood over an entrance on the left side. The first floor has recessed sashes with gauged brick flat arched heads. A pavilion to the garden has a canted bay extending to two storeys; an additional bay to the right has three windows, two with segmental heads. A single-storey, double-depth kitchen block sits to the far left, constructed of red brick with hipped tiled roofs. It has four sashes with segmental heads on the front and a coped parapet. Blind openings and an entrance are found in the left return, with a blind opening and entrance on the garden side.

The interior includes a black and white stone-flagged entrance hall and through passage, and an early 18th-century open well staircase with barley sugar balusters, fluted Corinthian newel posts, an open string, carved cheek pieces, a ramped and moulded handrail. Much of the ground and first floors retain early 18th-century fielded panelling and box cornices. The right-hand pavilion has Louis XV Rococo panelling, mirrors, and tapestries, which were inserted around 1920.