Walden House is a former municipal structure in Market Hill,

Huntingdon Huntingdon is a market town in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was given its town charter by King John in 1205. It was the county town of the historic county of Huntingdonshire. Oliver Cromwell was born there ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the ...

, England. The structure, which has formerly the headquarters of Huntingdonshire County Council and has since been converted into private apartments, is a Grade II* listed building.

History

The building was commissioned by the local

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

, Lionel Walden I, in the 1660s. It was designed in the

Jacobean style The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James VI and I, with whose reign (1603–1625 in England) it is associated. At the start of James' reign ther ...

, built in red brick with stone dressings and was completed in 1674. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing the High Street. The central bay contained a doorway with a rectangular fanlight flanked by

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s supporting an entablature. The other bays on the ground floor and all the bays on the first floor were fenestrated by sash windows with architraves; below the windows on the first floor there were stone panels carved with swags. There were full height Ionic order pilasters at either end and, at roof level, there was a modillioned cornice and three dormer windows. Walden hosted a visit by the Duke of York, and was one of his strongest supporters after the duke became King James II in 1685. The house passed to his son, Lionel Walden II, and then to his grandson, Lionel Walden III; the grandson was a supporter of

James Francis Edward Stuart James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 16881 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales fro ...

and, after the

Jacobite rising of 1715 The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts. At Braemar, Aberdeenshire ...

, the grandson fled to France where he died. In the late 19th century, the building was acquired by a banker, Henry Charles Geldart. After Geldart's death in 1912, the house was vacant for two years. In July 1914, at the start of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, it was requisitioned by the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

for use an officers' mess for the 1st Highland Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery, who were billeted locally. In December 1914, it was re-assigned as a military hospital managed by a

Voluntary Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...

. After the war it was decommissioned and became the main offices of Huntingdonshire County Council, with all the key officers including the county surveyor, county accountant and county medical officer all based there. It also served as the main offices of

Huntingdon and Peterborough County Council Huntingdon and Peterborough County Council was the county council of Huntingdon and Peterborough in the east of England. It came into its powers on 1 April 1965 and was abolished on 1 April 1974. The county council was based at Walden House, Hunt ...

from April 1965 until that county was absorbed by

Cambridgeshire County Council Cambridgeshire County Council is the county council of Cambridgeshire, England. The council consists of 61 councillors, representing 59 electoral divisions. The council is based at New Shire Hall at Alconbury Weald, near Huntingdon. It is a me ...

in 1974. The building continued to occupied by staff from Cambridgeshire County Council until 2004, when it was acquired by a developer. It was then refurbished to a design by Haymills Conservation and converted into six private apartments with the first flat being ready for occupation in November 2008.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1674 County halls in England Grade II* listed buildings in Cambridgeshire Huntingdon

History

See also

References