Cambridge House

Cambridge House, Bluecoat Avenue, Hertford

A former dormitory house to Christ's Hospital School, now offices. Built 1904–6, designed by architect Alexander Stenning with contractor Sabey and Co of Islington. The building is constructed in red brick laid to Flemish bond with Portland stone dressings, machine-tiled roofs with lead roll hips and ridges, and red brick chimneys with stone bands and cornice.

The building comprises three storeys with the second floor partly in the roof as a semi-attic. It has a square block plan with a long rectangular projection for open dormitories. The style is Queen Anne.

The west facade to Bluecoat Avenue presents three bays. The ground and first floors contain sash windows with glazing bars, set back in reveals beneath red rubbed brick flat arches with projecting stone key blocks. All windows of the front elevation have moulded stone sills and projecting brick aprons with shallow ogee profile lower margins. The second-floor windows sit within shallow lead-covered pedimented dormer roofs, with the outer dormers triangular and the central one segmental. A wood modillion eaves cornice runs across the facade. The central bay contains modern twin-leaf doors with raised fielded panels and blank fanlights, recessed in an opening with red brick flat arch and stone key block. Cast-iron rainwater heads are initialled "CH" (Christ's Hospital) and dated "1904", with rectangular rainwater pipes on bay lines.

The south elevation features twin projecting bay windows, each with two sash windows with rubbed brick arches and brick key blocks, separated by a central pier with moulded stone cap. The first floor has one sash window on the left and right; the second floor has semi-dormers with paired sashes and triangular pedimented roofs. At ground floor centre, an originally narrow window has been widened to form a subsidiary entrance with modern twin-leaf doors. At landing level, a moulded stone band forms the sill of a tall window with moulded stone surround and semicircular arched head, with moulded console key block. Between first and second floors at landing level sits a stone-panelled spandrel with twin recessed, raised and carved cartouches showing scrollwork and fruit, inscribed with the date "1904". The window has leaded glazing with obscured quarries, some bearing fleur-de-lys. The lower light contains stained and painted armorial bearings of the Duke of Cambridge; the upper light bears the armorial bearings of the City of London.

To the right, the setback tail of the dormitories extends four bays with paired sashes on all floors and pedimented dormers. A chimneybreast and chimneystack occupy the centre. The ground floor has a projecting canted chimneybreast with stone pulvinated frieze, cornice and stone modelled cap with ogee profile. A recessed rectangular panel in the centre carries raised carved scrollwork and a shield bearing the arms of the City of London. Above a stone band, the chimney continues as a shallow projection to the first and second floors. Above the eaves cornice, a brick stack features twin blank arch recesses with moulded stone band and cornice.

The north elevation repeats the central chimney detail from the south elevation, with a single projecting rectangular bay on the ground floor.

Cambridge House is one of eight identical dormitory blocks. It has group value with the other dormitory blocks and with the remainder of the former Christ's Hospital School buildings.

Historical Context

Christ's Hospital was founded in the reign of Edward VI and relocated to Hertford and Ware following destruction of its premises in the City of London in the Great Fire of 1666. The Hertford premises were rebuilt in 1685 as twin terraces of dormitories facing each other across a central yard. The school was comprehensively rebuilt in 1904–6, when eight dormitory houses were constructed. The new school was officially opened by Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King George V and Queen Mary) during their visit to Hertford in July 1906. The school had been designed to accommodate girls only, as the boys' school had moved to Horsham in Sussex. The girls' school remained in operation until 1984, when it also relocated to Horsham. Following partial redevelopment of the Christ's Hospital site west of Mill Road (which was cut through east of the dormitory courtyard), the dormitory blocks were converted to office use with some subdivision of interiors.