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Blake Hall is a country house within the civil parish of Bobbingworth, to the north-west of Chipping Ongar, in the county Essex, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed building, and its park and garden are Grade II listed.
The descendants of Capel Cure took the surname Capel-Cure. The Capel-Cure family engaged George Basevi - later the architect involved with the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge - in 1822 for further alterations to the house. Pevsner attributes the house's four-column Doric porch to Basevi. George Capel-Cure later commissioned extension to the house in the mid-19th century, with the addition of the third storey and the south wing.
In April 1865, Blake Hall station was opened by the Great Eastern Railway. Although it was located more than a mile to the southwest of the house, it was named after it as the railway line ran through the estate. It operated principally as a goods station carrying agricultural produce from the nearby farms into London.
The Capel-Cures put Blake Hall up for sale in 1884, but it was not sold. In the early-20th century, the Capel-Cures bought the staircase - which Pevsner dates to c.1698 - from Schomberg House, London and fitted it into Blake Hall.
During World War II, the operations centre at nearby RAF North Weald for Sector E, No. 11 Group RAF was bombed by the Luftwaffe in September 1940. The floors and interior walls in the South Wing and around the drawing-room and library were removed and a new "ops room" (operations room) constructed in its place. were put up around the grounds to accommodate those who worked there. Blake Hall was not returned to Nigel Capel-Cure until 1948.
The centre block of the north-west entrance front is of three storeys and seven bays. The middle three bays break forward beneath a pediment. The ground floor is band rusticated. The central porch — attributed to George Basevi — is of four Doric order, friezed with , and . To the right of the centre block lies the two-storey extension. To the left of the centre block are two two-storey ranges - the last of which forms the service wing.
The centre block of the south-east garden front has semi-circular bays to the right and left — an extension by the Capel-Cures — is of three storeys and nine bays. The central doorcase incorporates a Fanlight, , frieze and a flat canopy. To the left of the centre block is the two-storey extension, matching the north-west front. To the right lies a range of two storeys and three bays, with a columnaded loggia to the ground floor.
In the hall, two Tuscan order form a screen to the staircase, which Pevsner dates to c.1698 - from Schomberg House on Pall Mall, London. In the library, a pair of neoclassical bookcases survive on the rear wall, following the gutting of the library for the RAF Group No.11 operations room.
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