Prince Albert Cottages

A group of four tenements forming a single building, constructed in 1864 for the Labourer's Friendly Society, with 20th-century alterations. Designed by Henry Roberts, the cottages are built of red brick laid in a Flemish bond pattern, featuring yellow brick dressings, including moulded string courses. The low-pitched Welsh slate roof is largely hidden by a low parapet with stone copings. The brick chimneystacks are prominent, with the left-hand stack featuring diagonally set outer shafts above projecting corbel courses, while the right-hand stack has been reduced in height to the level of the corbel courses; a central rear chimneystack has also been reduced. The architectural style reflects the Jacobean Revival.

Externally, the cottages are two stories high, with truncated Dutch gables above the parapet and slightly projecting ends. Each end features a triple-light casement window with divided glazing to both the first and ground floors. The recessed central section has a shallow Tudor arched opening with a stone extrados. A first-floor access balcony is present, adorned with a wooden railing and stick balusters, and a recessed ground floor contains doors to the ground-floor tenements on the left and right, and an external stair leading to the first floor.

Originally, each tenement was designed to a standard plan, comprising a lobby leading to a living room at the front, with two bedrooms opening off at the rear. A central scullery with a w.c. was situated at the front, alongside a large bedroom at the rear. The plan could be easily adapted to combine pairs of tenements around a staircase, and repeated on each floor level.

The block of four tenements was initially built as 'Model Houses for Families' in connection with the Great Exhibition of 1851, commissioned by the Society for the Improvement of the Conditions of the Labouring Classes and funded by Prince Albert. The original exhibition structure was constructed near the Cavalry Barracks, facing the Crystal Palace site in Hyde Park. Construction incorporated hollow brick to mitigate damp, with hollow brick segmentally vaulted first floors and roof, filled with concrete. Following the Exhibition, the block was dismantled and re-erected in Kennington Park in 1852. Robert Dimsdale, the Member of Parliament for Hertford, served on the SICLC Committee and championed the construction of the Hertford block, where a pitched roof replaced the original flat roof. The buildings largely retain their original external character, despite the reduced height of two of the main chimneys. The tenements have undergone periodic refurbishment, most recently in the 1970s.