Birkdale Lodge

SOUTHPORT

SD31NW LULWORTH ROAD, Birkdale 664-1/1/10 (East side) No.1 Birkdale Lodge

GV II

Villa. c1850, altered with additions to east end. By John Aughton. Converted to 2 flats by Wignall & Ainsworth. Scored stucco painted white with stone dressings painted black, some timber-framing, slate roofs. STYLE: eclectic, combining Italianate and vernacular features. PLAN: irregular double-depth plan with south porch-tower and single-storey wing at north-west corner. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, a 4-bay south front in which the first and third bays are gabled, the second is a square porch-tower and the fourth breaks forward as a short gabled wing. The ground floor of the tower has a round-headed doorway in the left side (approached by a low flight of steps with a balustrade) and a round-headed window to the front, both with keyed arch-bands linked by a moulded impost band carried round, and a cornice carried round; its upper floor has continuous wooden mullioned and transomed windows with leaded glazing and stained glass in the upper lights, and bracketed eaves to a steeply-pitched pyramidal roof with swept oversailing eaves and a weather-vane finial. To the left, the first bay has a French window at ground floor, a sash with moulded architrave at first floor, and open-pedimental oversailing eaves with an apex finial. To the right, the third bay has a canted bay window at ground floor with a bracketed cornice which carries across the fourth bay, which is canted to full height, and both these bays have sashes and gables like the first bay. Most windows have geometrical leaded glazing. Chimneys on the front and rear slopes. The left return side has giant pilasters forming 3 unequal round-headed bays, the centre a blank arch and the outer containing canted bay windows at ground floor, with bracketed cornices and pierced parapets, and round-headed sashes above; and wide open-pedimental oversailing eaves with a finial. Continued to the rear is a single-storey wing or pavilion which has a wide 8-light canted bay window on this side, a projected gable above, and a large semicircular bay window on its north side. INTERIOR: centre occupied by full-height open hall with timber-framed and panelled walls, carved oak fireplace, fine C18-style staircase mounting round 2 sides, and a galleried landing. HISTORY: believed to be one of the first 2 houses built in Birkdale Park, developed by the Weld Blundell family under Act of Parliament of 1848. (Bailey FA: History of Southport: Southport: 1955-: 198-99; Greenwood C: Thatch, Towers and Colonnades: Southport: 1990-: 38-40).

Listing NGR: SD3300016660