Abington Lodge

Abington Lodge is a house and two flats dating from about 1660, with significant rebuilding and alterations through the 18th and 19th centuries. It was initially built for Thomas Cobb, then rebuilt by Captain Roger Sizer (died 1724), enlarged about 1730 by Colonel Vachell, and altered about 1815 by John Mortlock, the banker, with further enlargement and alterations possibly by E. J. Mortlock (died 1902) in the mid-19th century. The building is timber-framed and plastered, with painted red brick and low-pitched, hipped, slated roofs. It features a rebuilt ridge stack and two rear stacks.

The early 18th-century square plan incorporates the hall and wing of the earlier 17th-century house. Early 19th-century alterations include the refenestration of the west facade, blocking of the original central doorway, and the relocation of the main entrance to the north within a single-story closed porch containing an oval lobby – this entrance was later blocked and the west entrance restored. A drawing room and conservatory were added to the east facade and the service wing was doubled in the mid-19th century, with the whole building being reroofed and unified by deep, boarded, modillioned eaves. The conservatory was demolished around 1960.

The west facade presents a symmetrical five-bay arrangement, with a restored pedimented doorcase and six-panelled door approached by stone steps. It has four early 19th-century twelve-paned hung sash windows on the ground floor, set within slightly enlarged openings with wooden lintels and gauged-brick arches. Five smaller windows are located on the first floor. The north facade shows a blocked 19th-century entrance with an inserted window below a wide fanlight with glazing bars. Two late 17th-century (and one in the service wing) twelve-paned hung sash windows feature ovolo-moulded glazing bars in segmental arches. C18 panelled pargetting is also present.

Interior details include some two-panelled doors, boxed ceiling beams, a large 17th-century hearth to the north-east room featuring a mantel beam, and early 18th-century panelling and moulded cornices to the north-east room and two first-floor rooms. There are also some six-panelled late 18th-century doors, an early 19th-century open string staircase with finely fluted balusters, and a south-west room featuring a recess with a pair of Ionic columns, a cornice, and ceiling decoration with guilloche patterns. Six-panelled doors and shutters are present at the garden door and windows. Mid-19th century features include panelled doors, skirting boards, and ceiling cornices, and round-arched openings to marble chimney pieces. The house was rented to Lord Grosvenor from 1775 to 1780 and used as a shooting box, with one room designated as the gun room. The grounds are believed to have been laid out by Humfrey Repton.