Details
HERTFORD
TL3212NW ST ANDREW STREET
817-1/16/219 (South side)
10/02/50 No.43
including St Nicholas Hall
II*
House, now antique shop, incorporating former church hall at
rear. C15, altered and extended early C17, rear range of C15
cottage demolished 1892 and rebuilt as St Nicholas Hall.
Timber-framed and plastered front with exposed studwork, rear
part red brick, Flemish bond, part red and colourwashed brick,
English bond to former St Nicholas Hall; front range has old
tiled roof. Sandfaced clay tiled over St Nicholas Hall.
EXTERIOR: 3 bay C15 front range, with additional C17 bay added
to left (east), all with jettied overhanging first floor. 2
storeys and attics. First-floor left has C17 oriel bay with
wood casements, with bold ogee profile lower spandrel and head
below overhang of attic dormer above, and small 9 pane
casement to right set below eaves. To the right C15 range has
12-pane Yorkshire sash window beneath overhang of attic dormer
and at far right a small 12-pane Yorkshire sash. The exposed
bracing is of 2 periods: thin studs with primary bracing,
three right-hand bays with close heavy studding with downward
curved windbracing at corners, position of 2 blocked windows
visible, one partly filled by Yorkshire sash to right-hand
side. Exposed bressumer and beam ends. Ground floor beneath
jetty has C20 restored casement bay window with canted sills
at left, and exposed studwork. Central C17 oak front door with
raised bands and raised and fielded panels. Mid C20 shopfront
to right formed of moulded oak mullions with plain glazed
closed lights, over a red brick stallriser, with 2 three
quarter glazed oak doors in centre. Front range with two C17
gabled casement dormers with exposed studwork jettied out
above first floor, and massive central red brick chimneystack
with band and oversailing cap.
Left (east) flank elevation rebuilt in red brick; right-hand
(west) flank elevation has exposed studwork at all levels,
with small 2-light casement in gable end lighting attic, and
on ground floor at left, a continuation of the shop window
with narrow lights between moulded oak mullions.
Rear (south) elevation has red brick first floor, black
weatherboarded gabled stair turret with 2 small 2-light
casement windows, and late C19 single storey stuccoed lean-to
with Welsh slated roof.
Principal (west) elevation of St Nicholas Hall faces St
Andrew's Churchyard. Free Arts and Crafts style, largely
single storey, with upper floor (former gallery) at left and
mezzanine, original stage level at right; attic floor inserted
over full length in 1970. Entrance at left, with four centred
brick Tudor arch with dripmould, with 'St Nicholas Hall' in
applied lettering, now with plate glass display window set in
former doorframe. Embattled parapet roof above, with setback
gable with central 3-light lattice-glazed wood casement window
and exposed studwork above, bargeboard and turned wood finial.
5 bay hall to right, with 4 lattice glazed 3-light wood
casements, and twin leaf doors with 2-light fanlight on right.
At far right exposed studded and plastered gable with large
8-light mullion and transom window, corner of gable chamfered
and verge cantilevered out over access driveway.
St Nicholas Hall with small triangular dormers and octagonal
central louvred ventilator cupola on ridge, with lead-roll
drum, timber louvred panels, ogee profile lead cap with iron
finial.
INTERIOR: ground floor of front block opened out as single
retail space, but subdivided by massive fireplace and chimney,
with timber bressumer, chamfered and tongue stopped beams
exposed in ceiling. Wall plate beneath jetty has mortices for
studs, window mullions and shutter grooves at west corner. In
centre of ground floor, reset as a prop, is late C15 octagonal
crown post with elaborate roll and ogee moulded base, roll and
cavetto moulded cap, retrieved from 30 Parliament Square
during its demolition. Rear wall has open studwork looking
into former St Nicholas Hall.
First floor now approached by C20 stair through St Nicholas
Hall, but original tight C17 winder stair with central newel
remains in stair turret to rear. First floor also opened out
as single sales area, with subdivision by chimney, which has a
moulded brick 4 centred arched fireplace. On third bay line
from left there is a braced tie beam truss with heavy long
jowled posts, chamfered with a plain tongue stop, with a
chamfered and tongue stopped tie beam and chamfered braces. At
ceiling level adjoining post to wall plate of the rear wall
has mortices for diamond pattern mullions and shutter grooves.
The central longitudinal beams are iron-strapped to the tie
beam, and the exposed joints of the attic floor are of lighter
section than those of the first floor. The mortices for studs
of the end of the 3 bay structure are exposed alongside the
chimney. The oriel window in the (east) end bay has ovolo
moulded C17 mullions.
The attics are now converted into a flat. The upper face of
the tie beam truss described above is exposed and has a
central mortice indicating a former crown post structure,
presumably removed during the C17 conversion of the attics and
the flooring over of a 2 bay first floor hall below. The west
bay has a raised-floor level, seen below as a raised plastered
ceiling, and the floor structure was not accessible. Only the
east room has a fireplace at attic level. The roof rafters
over the central section show no sign of smoke blackening
suggesting an unheated hall, or the contemporary construction
of a smoke hood in the position of the internal chimneybreast.
St Nicholas Hall is commemorated by a mahogany panel, now
fixed at the first-floor level of the frontage block,
inscribed 'Our kinsmen the citizens of Hartford Connecticut
USA gave the first gifts towards the erection of this hall of
St Nicholas in the birthplace of their forefathers AD 1892'.
HISTORICAL NOTE: St Nicholas Hall commemorates a former parish
of Hertford, unified with St Andrew's about 1707, although the
last rector had been presented as early as 1424 and the church
was demolished in 1675. It was sited near the river on the
present Maidenhead Yard, where it is shown on John Speed's map
published 1610.
(East Herts Archaeological Society Newsletter: Hertford:
1949-1970; Hertfordshire Countryside: Moodey G: Old buildings
in the County Town: Letchworth: 1946-1973: 47; The Buildings
of England: Pevsner N: Hertfordshire: Harmondsworth: 1977-:
192; Smith JT: English Houses 1200-1800: The Hertfordshire
Evidence: London: 1992-: 148; Green L: Hertford's Past in
pictures: Ware: 1993-: 42; Turnor L: History of Hertford:
Hertford: 1830-: 278-9; Page FM: History of Hertford:
Hertford: 1993-: 56-7).
Listing NGR: TL3234012603
