Hertford Museum Tooke House

Hertford Museum (No.18) and Tooke House (No.20), Bull Plain, Hertford

Houses, one building, now museum (No.18) and offices (No.20), including a north wing built as Oddfellows Hall. The structure dates from the early 17th century but was refronted in the mid 18th century, with alterations made in the 19th century and later periods. The building is timber-framed and plastered with an old tiled roof. The rear of No.18 features twin gables at the left (south) with a projecting M-shaped gable at the right (north) and a modern outshoot with Welsh slated roof. No.20 has a rear range with Welsh slated roof and a remodelled outshoot at the right (north) with an old tiled roof spanning 8 bays.

Exterior

The building rises to two storeys with attics. The first floor is set with 8 flush-set sash windows with moulded architrave surrounds; 4 to the left (No.20) with glazing bars — one of 16 panes, three of 12 panes — and 4 to the right (No.18) of 19th-century date with divided glazing.

The ground floor of No.20 has 3 flush-set 12-pane sash windows with moulded architrave surrounds to the left-hand extension (single storey and attics, the former Oddfellows Hall); to the right of the door are two 12-pane and one 16-pane sash. A plat band runs at first-floor level. The main entrance has a 6-panel door with an oblong fanlight in a panelled reveal, flanked by a fluted pilaster surround with paterae and reeded consoles, with a panelled soffit to the cornice hood.

The ground floor of No.18 has early 19th-century shop windows with closed windows on the right, surrounded by a Tuscan pilaster with entablature featuring a plain frieze and moulded cornice. To the left of the door is a narrower mid 20th-century replica shopfront. The central doorway has a 6-panel door (4 panels fielded) with a fanlight displaying tracery of half and quarter circles. The door sits in panelled reveals with a surround of reeded Tuscan pilasters surmounted by smaller pilasters flanking the fanlight. Above runs a plain frieze with carved paterae and leaves to left and right, flat modillions with carved soffits, and a slim moulded cornice hood. The front roof is punctuated by 4 box dormers with 6-pane sashes.

The first-floor rear elevation of No.20 has 1 flush 16-pane sash window at the left and a recessed triple sash of 4:12:4 panes at the right. The ground floor has a triple sash recessed under a segmented arch at the left, and early 19th-century French windows with margin glazing and Gothic upper lights at the right.

The rear of No.18 displays modern 2- and 3-light wood casements with divided glazing in the attics. Modern arcaded doors with sidelights and fanlight at the first-floor landing level provide access to the garden via modern iron steps and rails. A low 19th-century conservatory with Welsh slated hipped roof abuts 19th-century and 1980s outshoots at the right.

Interior

No.18 has been opened out to form shops and subsequently used as museum galleries. The staircase is of oak with a dogleg plan, close string with moulded cap, plain newels with tongue chamfers and ball finials, bold barley-sugar twist columns on vase balusters, and moulded handrails. The lower flights were rebuilt with 19th-century stick balusters, moulded hardwood handrail, and a Tuscan column lower newel. The first-floor display rooms are opened out with exposed beams, one featuring a chamfer and double tongue. The 4-bay attic has a roof of halved and pegged rafters with butt purlins. No.20's ground floor has been rebuilt since the 1970s closure of the Oddfellows Hall.

The first-floor north room of No.20 retains massive 17th-century chamfered beams above a later lower ceiling. Exposed timber studding in the south room appears to be 17th-century work with primary bracing and carpenters' assembly marks. Two attics preserve exposed collars, principal rafters, and butt purlins. A staircase, now cut off in the attic, has a close string with dogleg plan, newels, barley-sugar column on vase balusters, and heavy moulded handrail.

The roof retains some halved and pegged rafters at the south end, and evidence suggests there was originally a contemporary gabled outshoot. Much of the roof structure has since been replaced with sawn members.