Queen Alexandra House

Queen Alexandra House, Bluecoat Avenue, Hertford

Former dormitory house to Christ's Hospital School, now offices. Built 1904–6. Architect Alexander Stenning; contractor Sabey and Co of Islington. One of eight identical blocks constructed during the school's rebuilding.

The building is constructed of red brick laid to Flemish Bond with Portland stone dressings. The roofs are machine-tiled with lead roll hips and ridges. Red brick chimneys feature stone bands and cornices.

The structure comprises three storeys, with the second floor partly set into the roof as a semi-attic. It follows a square block plan with a long rectangular projection for open dormitories. The architectural style is Queen Anne.

The east facade facing Bluecoat Avenue displays three bays. It features a red brick plinth and walls with stone rusticated quoins and plat bands at first and second-floor level. Three windows on the ground and first floors are wood sashes with glazing bars, set back in reveals, with red rubbed brick flat arches and projecting stone key blocks. Moulded stone sills and protecting brick aprons with shallow ogee profile lower margins extend beneath all windows of the front elevation. The eaves feature a wood modillion cornice broken by second-floor windows with shallow lead-covered pedimented dormer roofs—the outer ones triangular, the central one 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 initialled 'CH' (Christ's Hospital) and dated '1904', with rectangular rainwater pipes on bay lines, are present.

The south elevation displays twin projecting bay windows with paired sash windows featuring rubbed brick arches and brick key blocks, separated by a central pier. A moulded stone cornice and parapet with ramped moulded stone cap crown this section. To the first floor are single sash windows left and right; the second floor features 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, a moulded stone band forms the sill of a tall window with moulded console key block.

At the landing level intermediate between first and second floors is a stone panelled spandrel with twin recessed, raised and carved cartouches featuring scrollwork and fruit, and bearing the date '1904'. The spandrel contains leaded glazing with obscured quarries, some decorated with fleur-de-lys. The lower light displays stained and painted armorial bearings of Her Majesty Queen Alexandra, whilst the upper light shows the armorial bearings of the City of London.

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 moulded cap with ogee profile. A recessed rectangular panel at its 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 first and second floors. Above the eaves cornice, the brick stack features twin blank arch recesses, a moulded stone band and cornice. The rear elevation facing west 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. Nos. 1 and 2 are linked on the west by a red brick wall with moulded stone coping, ramped at each end.

The interior was not inspected.

Christ's Hospital was founded during the reign of Edward VI. Following the destruction of its premises in the City of London during the Great Fire of 1666, the school relocated to Hertford and Ware. 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 these eight dormitory houses were constructed. The complex was officially opened by 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, as the boys' school had moved to Horsham in Sussex. The girls' school remained in operation until 1984, when it too relocated to Horsham. The Christ's Hospital site was subsequently partly redeveloped west of Mill Road, which was cut through east of the dormitory courtyard. The dormitory blocks were converted to office use, with some subdivision of interiors.

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