Lodge And Attached Gates And Screen Walls

The lodge and attached gates and screen walls at Balls Park in Hertford date from the mid-19th century. They are constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, featuring yellow brick dressings, and topped with an old tiled roof that has fishscale tiles over the front block. The building includes a central red brick stack with four flues and octagonal shafts over a square base, along with a simpler two-shafted stack at the rear.

The exterior presents a three-bay front with one storey and attics. The attic dormers have wooden casements with divided glazing, set under yellow brick rubbed flat arches. The gable features yellow brick quoins and a central blind recessed panel with chamfered jambs and a rubbed flat arch. On the ground floor, there are canted wooden mullion and transom casement bays on either side, with brick bases and single-light fishscale casements in the flanks. The entrance door has an upper six-panel glazed section and a Tudor arch. The ends and centre of the building display stone-coped Jacobean style Dutch gables, along with stone-coped attic dormers on the left and right.

The north and south elevations feature two-light mullion and transom casements on both the first and ground floors, adorned with elaborate Dutch gables. The interior has not been inspected.

The attached gates and screen walls leading from London Road are made of red brick with stone copings. The piers are constructed of yellow brick with red quoins, topped with stone caps and ball finials. The main gates consist of uprights with pierced spear-heads, set within boxed cast-iron piers decorated with lion heads, winged sphinxes, axes, and fasces, all positioned within an opening through the screen wall. There are pedestrian gates flanking the main gates between the iron and brick piers. Curved screen walls on either side of the brick piers feature ramped copings and are divided into panels by buttresses, with corbelled zig-zag courses below the copings.