Salisbury House

Salisbury House, Hertford

Salisbury House is a former dormitory building for Christ's Hospital School, now in office use. Built between 1904 and 1906, it was designed by architect Alexander Stenning, with Sabey and Co of Islington as contractor. The building is constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond with Portland stone dressings, machine-tiled roofs with lead roll hips and ridges, and red brick chimneys with stone bands and cornice.

The building 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. Designed in the Queen Anne style, the east facade facing Bluecoat Avenue is three bays wide. It features a red brick plinth and walls with stone rusticated quoins and plat bands at first and second-floor level. The ground and first floors have three windows each: 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 broken by second-floor windows which have shallow lead-covered pedimented dormer roofs—outer triangular in form, the central one segmental. Twin-leaf doors with raised fielded panels and blank fanlights occupy the central bay, recessed in an opening with red brick flat arch and stone key block. Cast-iron rainwater heads, initialled 'CH' for Christ's Hospital and dated 1904, sit on the bay lines with rectangular rainwater pipes.

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. A moulded stone cornice and parapet with ramped moulded stone cap crown this elevation. The first floor has one sash window on each side; the second floor has 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 sits a moulded stone band forming 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, with the date '1904' carved upon it.

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 in the centre bears raised carved scrollwork and a shield with 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, a brick stack features twin blank arch recesses, moulded stone band and cornice. The rear elevation faces west and is single bay. The north elevation repeats the central chimney detail from the south elevation and has a single projecting rectangular bay on the ground floor. Salisbury House and its adjacent building, No. 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 and relocated to Hertford and Ware following the destruction of its premises in the City of London during the Great Fire of 1666. The Hertford premises were rebuilt in 1685 as twin terraces of dormitories facing each other across a central yard. The school underwent complete reconstruction between 1904 and 1906, when eight dormitory houses were constructed. The new school was officially opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales (who later became 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 also relocated to Horsham. Following the closure of the school, the Christ's Hospital site was partly redeveloped. Mill Road was cut through east of the dormitory courtyard, and the dormitory blocks were converted to office use, with some subdivision of interiors. The eight dormitory blocks hold group value with one another and with the remaining buildings of the former Christ's Hospital School.