Lench'S Trust Almshouses The Lodge

Lench's Trust Almshouses, known as The Lodge, were built in 1849 and are located on Ravenhurst Street in Highgate. This group of almshouses is constructed from red brick with stone dressings and is designed in a Jacobean style by architects J H Hornblower and Haylock, similar to their other almshouses in Ladywood.

The building features a symmetrical arrangement with a central matron's lodge flanked by walls that connect to the gable ends of two wings extending southward to form a close. There are doorways on either side of the matron's lodge, which is two stories tall with an attic and an ogee-shaped gable. The gabled ends of the wings are elaborately decorated with tripartite panels that include inscriptions, topped with chimney stacks.

The matron's lodge has a three-light mullioned window with a drip mould on the ground floor. The flanking screen walls have moulded capping that extends over the gable ends of the wings, acting as a stringcourse. Inside the close, the wings present three-bay elevations facing a central lawn, with the southern end closed off by a pair of wings that have a central break. Each three-bay elevation contains three almshouse units, all built of red brick and two stories high. The roofs are tiled with eaves cornices, and there are stepped chimney stacks with cresting along the ridges. The windows are small two-light casement types, and the entrances to the internal porches feature four-centred arches with drip moulds. The close elevation of the matron's lodge includes a two-story canted bay with small parted casement lights and a three-light attic casement with a drip mould, topped by a shaped gable.