The Old Stables

The Old Stables is a two-bay upper hall house, reputedly used as stables and a hayloft for Ware Manor, and later converted to a chapel, dating primarily to the late 15th century, with a right-hand bay from the 16th century. It shares a structure with No.1 Bluecoat Yard. The building was restored in 1977. It is timber-framed, currently plastered and pebbledashed with colourwashing, and has an old tiled roof with a smooth plastered coved eaves cornice and a gabled tiled casement dormer.

The exterior presents two storeys and attic space. The first floor has 4-light mullioned windows with pointed arched heads, with C20 glazing to the left, and one flush casement window with glazing bars to the right. The ground floor features a projecting 18th-century lean-to at the left with two casement windows, and a late 20th-century front door with a weatherboard head, situated between two flush casement windows with glazing bars.

The interior retains remnants of a bressumer to the jetty with mortices for studs and mullioned windows, which were moved forward during a 17th-century underbuilding to create a vertical front. A Tudor-arched door head leads to a two-bay hall on the first floor, which has an unmoulded crown post roof visible in the attic space. The right-hand bay beyond the hall appears to be from the 16th century and connects to No.1.

Historically, the original use of the building is unclear, with its reported function as stables and a hayloft emerging during the decline of Ware Manor in the 17th century. The Bluecoat Yard buildings were acquired by Christ's Hospital in 1685, and remained in use by the Bluecoat School until 1761. The structure was documented on a survey of Bluecoat Yard dated 1685. Following the school’s relocation, the building served various purposes before reverting to stables in the mid-19th century and conversion to residential use in 1977.