Sherwood House

Sherwood House, Bluecoat Avenue, Hertford

Sherwood House is a former dormitory block to Christ's Hospital School, now in office use. It is one of eight identical buildings constructed between 1904 and 1906, designed by architect Alexander Stenning with contractor Sabey and Co of Islington. The building is listed Grade II for group value.

The structure is built of red brick laid to Flemish Bond with Portland stone dressings, machine-tiled roofs with lead roll hips and ridges, and red brick chimneys with stone bands and cornice. It has a square block plan with a long rectangular projection for open dormitories, and rises three storeys with the second floor partly in the roof as a semi-attic.

The west facade to Bluecoat Avenue displays Queen Anne styling across three bays. A red brick plinth and walls are punctuated by stone rusticated quoins and plat bands at first and second-floor level. Ground and first-floor windows are wood sashes with glazing bars, set back in reveals and framed by red rubbed brick flat arches with projecting stone key blocks. Moulded stone sills and projecting brick aprons with shallow ogee profile lower margins run beneath all front-elevation windows. The wood modillion eaves cornice is broken by second-floor windows set in shallow lead-covered pedimented dormer roofs—outer triangular, central segmental. Central doors are modern twin-leaf with raised fielded panels and blank fanlights, recessed in an opening with red brick flat arch and stone key block. Cast-iron rainwater heads are initialled 'CH' (Christ's Hospital) '1904', with rectangular rainwater pipes on bay lines.

The south elevation features twin projecting bay windows, each containing two sash windows with rubbed brick arches and brick key blocks separated by a central pier, moulded stone cornice and parapet with ramped moulded stone cap. The first floor has one sash window to left and right; the second floor has semi-dormers with paired sashes and triangular pedimented roofs. The ground floor centre, originally with narrow windows, is now widened to form a subsidiary entrance with modern twin-leaf doors. At landing level is a moulded stone band forming the sill of a tall window with moulded console key block.

At intermediate landing level between first and second floors sits a stone-panelled spandrel with twin recessed, raised and carved cartouches displaying scrollwork and fruit, dated '1904'. This feature incorporates leaded glazing with obscured quarries, some bearing fleur-de-lys patterns. The lower light contains stained and painted armorial bearings (unidentified), while the upper light displays the armorial bearings of the City of London. To the right, the setback tail of the dormitories spans four bays with paired sashes on all floors and pedimented dormers.

A chimneybreast and stack occupy the centre. The ground floor has a projecting canted chimneybreast with stone pulvinated frieze, cornice and stone modelled cap with ogee profile. A recessed rectangular panel in the centre contains raised carved scrollwork and a shield bearing the arms of the City of London. Above a stone band, the chimney continues as a shallow projection to the first and second floors. Above the eaves cornice rises a brick stack with twin blank arch recesses, moulded stone band and cornice. The rear elevation faces east as a single bay. The north elevation repeats the central chimney detail from the south elevation and features a single projecting rectangular bay on the ground floor.

The interior has not been inspected.

Christ's Hospital was founded in the reign of Edward VI and relocated to Hertford and Ware following the destruction of its City of London premises in the Great Fire of 1666. The Hertford premises were rebuilt in 1685 as twin terraces of dormitories facing each other across a central yard. The school was comprehensively rebuilt in 1904–1906, when these eight dormitory houses were constructed. The new school was officially opened by TRH Prince and Princess of Wales (later King George V and Queen Mary) during their visit to Hertford in July 1906. The school had been designed to accommodate girls exclusively, as the boys' school had relocated to Horsham, Sussex. The girls' school remained operational until 1984, when it too moved to Horsham. Following this, the Christ's Hospital site was partially redeveloped west of Mill Road, which was cut through east of the dormitory courtyard, and the dormitory blocks were converted to office use with some internal subdivision.

The eight dormitory blocks possess group value with each other and with the remainder of the former Christ's Hospital School buildings.