Prince Of Wales House

Prince of Wales House, Bluecoat Avenue, Hertford

Former dormitory house to Christ's Hospital School, now offices. Built 1904–6 as one of eight identical blocks. Designed by architect Alexander Stenning, with contractor Sabey and Co of Islington. Late twentieth-century alterations have been made.

The building is constructed in red brick laid to Flemish bond with Portland stone dressings. Machine-tiled roofs feature lead roll hips and ridges, with red brick chimneys topped with stone bands and cornice.

The exterior presents three storeys, with the second floor partly set into the roof as a semi-attic. The block is square in plan with a long rectangular projection housing open dormitories. The design follows Queen Anne style. The east façade facing Bluecoat Avenue comprises three bays of red brick with stone rusticated quoins and plat bands at first and second-floor level. Ground and first-floor windows 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 projecting brick aprons with shallow ogee profile lower margins run beneath all windows of the front elevation. The wood modillion eaves cornice is interrupted by second-floor windows with shallow lead-covered pedimental dormer roofs—the outer ones triangular, the central one segmental. Doors occupy the central bay: modern twin-leaf doors 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, run on bay lines.

The south elevation features twin projecting bay windows, each with two sash windows with rubbed brick arches and brick key blocks, separated by a central pier with moulded stone cornice and parapet topped by a ramped moulded stone cap. First floor has one sash window to left and right; second floor features semi-dormers with paired sashes under triangular pedimented roofs. The ground floor centre, originally with narrow windows, has been 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 stone surround and semicircular arched head, topped with a moulded console key block. Between first and second floors, a stone-panelled spandrel carries twin recessed, raised and carved cartouches with scrollwork and fruit, inscribed with the date '1904'. Leaded glazing throughout includes obscured quarries, some bearing fleur-de-lys. The lower light displays stained and painted armorial bearings of HRH Prince of Wales (later HM King George V), with the upper light showing the armorial bearings of the City of London.

To the left extends the setback tail of the dormitories, four bays wide, with paired sashes on all floors and pedimented dormers. A chimneybreast and stack occupy the centre. The ground floor features a projecting canted chimneybreast with stone pulvinated frieze, cornice and stone-modelled caps with ogee profile. A recessed rectangular panel in the centre carries raised carved scrollwork and a shield with the arms of the City of London. Above the band, the chimney projects as a shallow rise to first and second floors. Above the eaves cornice stands a brick stack with twin blank arch recesses, moulded stone band and cornice. The rear (west) elevation is a single bay.

The north elevation repeats the central chimney detail from the south façade 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 coping, ramped at each end.

The interior was not inspected.

Christ's Hospital was founded during the reign of Edward VI and relocated to Hertford and Ware after its premises in the City of London were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The Hertford site was rebuilt in 1685 as twin terraces of dormitories facing each other across a central yard. In 1904–6, the school underwent major reconstruction, and the eight dormitory houses were constructed. The building was formally opened by Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess of Wales (later King George V and Queen Mary) during their visit to Hertford in July 1906. The school had been designed to accommodate girls only, as the boys' school had moved to Horsham in Sussex. The girls' school remained operational until 1984, when it too relocated to Horsham. Following partial redevelopment of the Christ's Hospital site west of Mill Road, which was cut through east of the dormitory courtyard, the dormitory blocks were converted to office use with some interior subdivision.

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