Princess Mary House

Princess Mary House, Bluecoat Avenue, Hertford

A former dormitory house to Christ's Hospital School, now offices. Built 1904–6, designed by architect Alexander Stenning with contractor Sabey and Co of Islington. The building is constructed in 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.

The building is a three-storey structure, with the second floor partly set in the roof as a semi-attic, arranged on a square block plan with a long rectangular projection for open dormitories. It exemplifies the Queen Anne style.

The east facade to Bluecoat Avenue comprises three bays. A red brick plinth rises to walls with stone rusticated quoins and plat bands at first and second-floor level. Three windows on the ground and first floors feature wood sashes with glazing bars set back in reveals, with red rubbed brick flat arches and projecting stone key blocks. Moulded stone sills and projecting brick aprons with shallow ogee profile lower margins sit beneath all windows of the front elevation. A wood modillion eaves cornice is broken by second-floor windows which have shallow lead-covered pedimented dormer roofs—the outer triangular and the central segmental. Doors in the central bay are modern twin leaf with raised fielded panels and blank fanlights, set back in an opening with red brick flat arch and stone key block. Cast-iron rainwater heads, initialled 'CH' (Christ's Hospital) '1904', with rectangular rainwater pipes sit 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, with 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 is recessed between the bays, originally with narrow windows 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 landing level, intermediate between first and second floors, is a stone panelled spandrel with twin recessed, raised and carved cartouches featuring scrollwork and fruit, inscribed with the date '19' and '04'. Leaded glazing with obscured quarries is used throughout. The lower light contains stained and painted armorial bearings of HRH the Princess of Wales (later HM Queen Mary).

To the left, the setback tail of the dormitories extends four bays with paired sashes on all floors and pedimented dormers. A chimneybreast and chimneystack occupy the centre. The ground floor features a projecting canted chimneybreast with stone pulvinated frieze, cornice and stone modelled cap with ogee profile. Within the centre is a recessed rectangular panel with 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 sits a brick stack with twin blank arch recesses, moulded stone band and cornice. The rear (west) elevation comprises 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. Nos 3 and 4 are linked on the west by a red brick wall with moulded stone copings, ramped at each end.

Historical context: Christ's Hospital was founded during the reign of Edward VI and moved 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 underwent complete rebuilding in 1904–6, when eight dormitory houses were constructed. The school was officially opened by TRH the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King George V and Queen Mary) during their visit to Hertford in July 1906. The new school was designed to accommodate girls only, the boys' school having relocated to Horsham in Sussex. The girls' school remained operational until 1984, when it too moved to Horsham. The Christ's Hospital site was subsequently partly redeveloped, with Mill Road cut through east of the dormitory courtyard, and the dormitory blocks converted to office use with some subdivision of interiors.

This building is one of eight identical dormitory blocks which hold group value with each other and with the remainder of the former Christ's Hospital School buildings.