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Summary

17th century house with 16th century origins, updated with smart new brick front in the earlier 18th century

Monument Types

• BREWHOUSE (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• DOUBLE PILE HOUSE (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• FARMSTEAD (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• TIMBER FRAMED HOUSE (Post Medieval - 1501 AD to 1900 AD)
• ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPEL (Twentieth Century - 1901 AD to 2000 AD)

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II*) 160291: HARE STREET HOUSE
• Listed Building (II) 160292: GATEWAY AT HARE STREET HOUSE
• Listed Building (II) 160293: BREW HOUSE AT HARE STREET HOUSE (SOUTHEAST OF HOUSE)

Full description

Hare Street House is a large double-pile house with two storeys and attics, set back from the road behind a high wall. The oldest part is the north wing with gabled two-bay NE kitchen wing, which date to the 16th or early 17th century. The north range has fine 17th century tall red brick octagonal chimneys. In the later 17th century these early parts were incorporated into a tall double-pile house which was probably built for William Brand, between 1673 and his death in 1676. The house is timber-framed and plastered with panelled pargetting. In the early to mid 18th century a red brick front was added, either for the Houblon family or from William Benn (Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1739, Lord Mayor of London 1747; died 1755). This west front is symmetrical, five windows wide, with plinth, floor band, cornice and parapet concealing three dormers; in the centre is a pedimented doorcase with Roman Doric pilasters <1>.
Inside are two Tudor arched fireplaces on the upper floor of the north wing. The house also has an early 18th century boxed sash window with shutters, and a panelled rear staircase with carving and wood sculptures by Gabriel Pippit. The interior was altered by Robert Hugh Benson, who lived here from 1903/4 until his death in 1914. The house was restored in 1962 for Cardinal Godfrey <1>.
The gateway, in ornamental wrought iron with red brick piers, was originally placed in the garden wall opposite the central entrance in the 18th century west front, and is of the same date. It has been moved to the NW corner of the house between the forecourt and the garden <1>.
South of the house itself is a 17th century timber-framed and plastered brewhouse on a brick sill, with brick at the west end. This is a three-bay single-storey structure which R H Benson converted into a Roman Catholic chapel; it still contains fittings and a choir gallery, and a north door in a pointed frame. The chapel was eventually abandoned when a Catholic church was built close by <1>, just to the east in what had been part of the grounds.
The later 19th century OS maps <3, 4> show details of the gardens, and a compact farmstead north of the house, with ranges of buildings around a compartmented yard. Most of these have been demolished.
See also Hare Street Cottage [31397].

OS 25 inch map, 1st edition (Cartographic material). SHT8116.

<1> Listed Buildings description (Digital archive). SHT6690.

<2> Jackson, Christine E, 1983, Houses in Hare Street and the Hormeads (with 2009 update by Heather Moore), - p17 (Bibliographic reference). SHT2926.

Sources and further reading

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