Bridgeman House

Bridgeman House on West Street in Hertford is a house of 1649 with 18th-century extensions, 19th-century alterations and extensions, now subdivided into four dwellings numbered 37A, B, C and D. It is built of brick laid in English bond, now colourwashed, with 19th-century extensions in yellow-brown stock brick in Flemish bond. The roofs are hipped and gabled with old tiles, the 19th-century extensions covered with Welsh slate. A central brick chimneystack, now rendered, has arched panels with projecting impost blocks and surrounds on each side below a cornice band. Remaining stacks are in yellow brick with terracotta pots.

The original plan was a two-room lobby entry design with hall, kitchen and parlour, with an additional one-bay service room with subsidiary fireplace on the left (east) side added in the early 18th century. The building was further extended and subdivided in the mid to late 19th century.

The exterior is of two storeys and attics over a basement. The front is seven bays with an arcade of tall, slender pilasters and projecting impost band. The arches have semicircular heads except to bays 2 and 6, each with projecting keyblocks below the band and moulded cornice. The first floor contains three 19th-century wood casements with glazing bars in a 3:2:3 pattern, repeated in casements to the wings, with a smaller central casement above the porch. Ground floor casements are in bays 2 and 6. A moulded brick plinth sits at the base of the arcaded recesses.

The central projecting square-plan wooden porch is supported by four Tuscan columns on tall plinths which form balustraded sides fitted with settles. Above the columns are strapwork-ornamented blocks, and carved arcade brackets with pediments, fascia and moulded cornice. The porch has two stone steps, a stone threshold and a black and red tiled floor. The door is recessed within a segmental arch with a shallow stone threshold. It is a panelled door now cut into two leaves, with the upper panel recessed with an inner oval and carved strapwork key and impost ornament, a square middle panel with an inner recessed square and 'L' surrounds, and a narrow recessed bottom panel, all with moulded panel surrounds and moulded architrave. The interior construction is ledged and battened. The roof has box dormers in the front slope.

A recessed double-gabled two-storey wing at the left (east) (37A) has four casement windows. Originally one bay, it was extended to two bays in the early 19th century, and extended again with a rear outshut in the mid-19th century. At the right (west) is a one-bay extension providing entrance to 37C, with one casement on the first floor and a segmental arched doorway on the ground floor with a six-panel door, the upper two panels glazed. A tiled roof in line with the front slope of the main roof links and oversails to the projecting right-hand (west) wing. No.37D has a one-bay street frontage with pebbledashed ground floor, first floor in yellow brick with a single two-light wood casement.

The right (west) flank elevation has three first-floor sash windows. The ground floor has part red brick on the left with a 20th-century oriel bay, door and two sash windows.

The rear is overlaid by a large four-bay double-gabled projecting yellow-brown brick outshut, centre and left, divided between Nos 37B, C and D, with first-floor recessed twelve-pane sash windows. A narrow outshut of similar character is on the right (east) to 37A.

No.37C contains the original parlour with an exposed beam with tongued stop and a fireplace recess reduced in size with a 19th-century surround. An 18th-century corner cupboard with profiled carved shelves sits in a recess above. A four-panel door with quadrant moulding and HL-hinges is present. A 19th-century staircase has stick balusters and a Tuscan column newel. The front bedroom on the first floor has exposed chamfered beams and dragon beams below the original hipped end of the roof, a large arched rendered fireplace, and at the left a 17th-century battened door decorated to suggest panels with narrow upper and middle panels with triple intermediate and lower panels. This led to a closet alongside the chimney, now blocked off and only accessible from No.37B. The attic, now subdivided between Nos 37B and 37C but originally two chambers with central access, cannot be accessed by roof inspection.

No.37B has entry from the porch into a hall and kitchen through a doorway with a ledged and battened door with moulded edges and 'V' inserts and moulded architrave frame. The fireplace is reduced in width with a 19th-century bolection moulded surround with carved acanthus leaf cornice to the shelf. Exposed beams with chamfers are visible. A 17th-century newel stair with close string, cut profiled splats, moulded handrail and square newel post with moulded cap on square pedestal is present. A door to the east room is similar to the porch door. The east room has a corner fireplace. The first-floor front bedroom has exposed dragon beams as in 37C. The attic mirrors that of 37C, and the roof, inspected on this side, has halved and pegged oak rafters in the medieval tradition.

No.37A has mainly 19th-century internal features, but the roof over the front has riven rafters and butt purlins of late 17th or 18th-century date.

No.37D was not inspected internally.

The house lay on the outskirts of Hertford for many years within the Brickendon liberty. It takes its name from Charles Bridgeman, who was organist of All Saints Church from 1791 to 1872 and died around 1874 at the age of 96.