Former Stewards House Christs Hospital (Part Of Chauncy Court)

Former Steward's House, Christ's Hospital (part of Chauncy Court), Hertford

A house, now subdivided, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century with 20th-century alterations. The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with stucco detailing, topped by old tiled roofs with lead roll hips over wide eaves cornice.

The exterior comprises two storeys and attics. The south elevation is largely stuccoed and features three windows on the first floor: two slightly recessed 9-pane sashes with blind boxes and one recessed 6-pane sash positioned above a projecting brick porch to the right. The ground floor has two 8-pane sashes with blind boxes and a door with four glazed panels and fanlight beneath a flat doorhood with wrought-iron scroll brackets, located at the right.

A projecting wing extends to the right, largely stuccoed with a brick front containing two wooden mullion and transom casements with 9 glazing bars on the first floor and one similar window at ground level on the left, beneath a half-glazed door with leaded fanlight and flat doorhood on wrought-iron scroll brackets. The brick front facing south displays a 3-light lattice casement window on the first floor and a 3-light casement with wooden glazing bars on the ground floor.

The side (east) elevation features a modern single-storey flat-roofed extension at the left, above which rises an external chimney breast and stack of the main building; a second stack stands in the re-entrant corner. Two first-floor flush-set 12-pane sash windows are present, with one large triple-light plain glazed sash beneath a segmental arch on the ground floor to the right centre, flanked by modern half-glazed doors. A plat band at first-floor level is marked by six cast-iron circular tie plates below. A post-1984 single-storey red brick extension with machine-tiled roof extends to the right.

The rear elevation displays brick on the first floor and plastered rendering on the ground floor, with two widely separated nearly flush-set sash windows at the extreme left and right serving both first and ground floors, the latter beneath segmental arches. A small 2-light multi-pane casement is positioned at the centre landing level, beneath which sits a modern plain half-glazed door.

The roof features three gabled leaded casement dormers to the front, one at the side on the left with wood casements, one box casement dormer at the side on the right, and three leaded box casement dormers at the rear. Brick chimney stacks to the right display tall shafts, one with oversailing courses and three earthenware pots, and one multi-flue stack without pots in the form of two connected but slightly offset slabs of brickwork.

The Steward's House adjoins the original school hall to the east. Though substantially altered, the structure survives from the rebuilding of 1695. It was subdivided into separate dwellings within the Chauncy Court elderly persons complex after the school vacated the site in 1984.