7, Bluecoat Avenue

A former dormitory house to Christ's Hospital School, now in office use. Built 1904–6 to the design of architect Alexander Stenning, with contractor Sabey and Co of Islington. One of eight identical blocks constructed during the school's major rebuilding programme.

The building is of red brick laid to Flemish bond with Portland stone dressings. Machine-tiled roofs have lead roll hips and ridges, and red brick chimneys feature stone bands and cornicing.

The exterior comprises three storeys, with the second floor partly set within the roof as a semi-attic. The plan is a square block with a long rectangular projection to the rear for the open dormitories. The style is Queen Anne. The west facade to Bluecoat Avenue displays three bays with a red brick plinth and walls. Stone rusticated quoins and plat bands mark the first and second-floor levels. Three sash windows with glazing bars appear on ground and first floors, set back in reveals with red rubbed brick flat arches and projecting stone key blocks. Moulded stone sills sit below all front windows, with projecting brick aprons beneath them having shallow ogee profile lower margins. The wood modillion eaves cornice is interrupted by second-floor windows topped with shallow lead-covered pedimented dormer roofs—the outer ones triangular, the central one segmental. Modern twin-leaf doors with raised fielded panels and blank fanlights occupy the central bay, recessed within an opening with red brick flat arch and stone key block. Cast-iron rainwater heads are initialled 'CH' (Christ's Hospital) and dated '1904', with rectangular rainwater pipes positioned on the 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 cap. The first floor has one sash window to left and right; the second floor semi-dormers contain paired sashes with 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 stone surround and semicircular arched head, complete with moulded console key block. Between the first and second floors at landing level sits a stone-panelled spandrel with twin recessed, raised and carved cartouches featuring scrollwork and fruit, inscribed with the date '1904'. The leaded glazing contains obscured quarries, some bearing fleur-de-lys designs. To the right extends the setback tail of the dormitories, a four-bay section with paired sashes on all floors and pedimented dormers, with a central chimneybreast and chimneystack. The ground floor here has a projecting canted chimneybreast with stone pulvinated frieze, cornice and moulded cap of ogee profile. A recessed rectangular panel in the centre displays 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, the brick stack features twin blank arch recesses with a moulded stone band and cornice. The rear (east) elevation is single-bay. The north elevation repeats the central chimney detail from the south elevation and includes a single projecting rectangular bay on the ground floor. Numbers 7 and 8 are connected at ground-floor level by a single-storey flat-roofed block of red brick with a parapet incorporating reclaimed copings.

The interior was not inspected during the survey.

Christ's Hospital, founded in the reign of Edward VI, relocated to Hertford and Ware following the destruction of its premises in the City of London during the Great Fire of 1666. The Hertford site was rebuilt in 1685 as twin terraces of dormitories facing across a central yard. In 1904–6, the school underwent comprehensive reconstruction, during which these eight dormitory houses were constructed. The building was officially opened by Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King George V and Queen Mary) during their Hertford visit in July 1906. The school had been redesigned to accommodate girls only, the boys' school having relocated to Horsham in Sussex. The girls' school continued in operation 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 internal subdivision.

The dormitory blocks possess group value with one another and with the remaining buildings of the former Christ's Hospital School.