Beadle House

Beadle House, Bull Plain, Hertford

A house, now offices, built 1702–4 and extended in 1706, with 19th-century alterations and restoration in 1974 by architects Thorne, Barton, Kirby and Nash.

The building is constructed of dark red brick in Flemish bond with cherry red dressings, topped by a hipped roof with old tiles and a lead-flat crown. It follows a central entry and staircase plan, with a bay extension to the right (south) added shortly after initial completion.

The exterior presents 2 storeys, attics and basement across a 6-bay facade (originally 5 bays). The first floor has six 12-pane sash windows set back in plain wooden reveals, though the 2nd, 4th and 6th windows were blank in 1973. The ground floor contains four nearly flush-set 12-pane sashes with moulded architraves beneath red rubbed brick flat arches. A projecting plat band runs above these. The central doorway is approached by five stone steps and features a 3-panelled door with moulded surrounds framed by recessed-panel pilasters on stone plinth blocks. A 6-light fanlight with rectangular panes sits above, with fluted consoles and carved acanthus leaf brackets supporting a moulded cornice hood. The plinth has a splayed brick offset. A sunken front area contains four 3-light basement windows below segmental arches, fronted by modern reproduction iron railings. An arched carriageway on the right has a double header arch with modern iron gates.

The rear elevation displays 2-light mullion and transom windows with plain glazing, and an early 19th-century 12-paned bow sash window at the right. A central projecting staircase bay rises from an orange-red brick ground floor with weatherboarding above. A restored long 24-pane stair window with semicircular head and moulded cornice crowns this feature. The roof carries four box casement dormers to the front and three to the rear, with a modillioned eaves cornice at front and moulded cornice at rear. A rebuilt red brick chimneystack with band stands at the left with three modern pots; an equivalent south stack was demolished around 1973.

The interior features a central through hall with part oak panelling of late 17th-century pattern, possibly reset, fitted around a bolection architrave of the front right room. An elliptical arch with slim pilasters leads to the staircase hall. The north-east corner contains a small panelled parlour with bold moulded cornice. To the right of the fireplace is a semicircular niche with shelves, an arched head with flower painting, and carved cherub heads in the spandrels.

The staircase follows a dogleg plan with newel construction. The open string features tread nosings returned over cut profiled brackets. Barley-sugar twist columns stand on vase balusters, with two per tread and four at the newels. A moulded handrail runs above a dado with moulded rail.

The first floor front room, created around 1831 when the building housed the library of the Hertford Literary and Scientific Institution, spans the full width. It has a plaster cavetto cornice and a ceiling border of modelled scrolls and vine leaves. The rear south room has simple coving, and one of its mullion and transom windows is peg-jointed. The attics show exposed purlins butted into principal rafters. In the south attics, inclined hip rafters crossing the outer ceiling planes mark the position of the original building end before the 1706 extension. A subsidiary stair rises to a rooftop lantern.

A vaulted cellar lies beneath the large rear right (south) room, now plastered. In the north cellar, a weatherbeaten beam with tongued and stopped chamfer may be reused from a previous building on the site.

Historical Context

Dimsdale House was built around 1702, commenced by Sarah Crouch. In March 1704, a document of Release recorded the shell of "a new messuage or dwelling house, which is not yet finished", among the signatories being Richard Hoddy, bricklayer. The house was acquired by John Dimsdale, elder and younger. John Dimsdale the elder served as Mayor of Hertford in 1706 and 1711 and was knighted in 1725, dying in 1726. His son Thomas was a physician who discovered inoculation. In 1706, John Dimsdale obtained an additional lease enabling southward extension of the house over the carriageway.

In 1831, the Hertford Literary and Scientific Institution took over the building. A century later it had become shabby and was used as a factory. In 1946, it was acquired by Enfield Highway CWS for redevelopment but was saved by listing and a subsequent public inquiry, which regarded it as a test case of the historic building provisions of the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act. The Minister placed a preservation order on the building. It was subsequently included with adjoining Bull Plain buildings in a Comprehensive Development Area, but its future was secured when the Hertford Civic Society persuaded the Borough Council to remove the listed building from the CDA. It was purchased by Beadle Property Holdings, which gave the building its new name, and was restored 1973–4, receiving a European Architectural Heritage Year Award in 1975.