Lexden Grange (Colchester District Planning Office)

Lexden Grange is a large house built in 1904, now in use as the Colchester District Planning Office. It was designed by architect Robert Beaumont for a client with the initial H, with external and internal detailing possibly carried out by Arthur Robert Turrell Clarke, an architect in the firm. The building was extended to the rear in matching style around 1920, with some minor alterations made later in the 20th century. A dated rainwaterhead on the west elevation confirms the 1904 construction date.

The building is designed in the Vernacular Revival style. It is constructed mainly of red brick, with gables featuring moulded brickwork, tilehanging, and timber-framing with plaster infill. The roof is tiled with seven tall clustered brick chimneystacks. The plan is roughly L-shaped with two storeys and attics. The fenestration is irregular throughout, with wooden-framed mullioned or mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights, some incorporating stained glass.

The south-east or entrance front features a large tile-hung gable to the south with a single casement window within it. A two-storey seven-light splayed bay rises through both ground and first floors to the right, with a corner doorcase to the left. The east front displays an elaborate brick external chimneystack and a splayed bay to the ground floor. Two brick gables project to the north: the southernmost is a projecting timber-framed gable with two quatrefoil motifs above a continuous window and vertical struts with ogee bracing below. Beneath this is a ground-floor timber-framed porch with leaded light windows, herringbone brick infill below, a brick plinth, and a wooden seat. The northern gable has moulded brickwork and a three-tier seven-light staircase window to the first floor with stained glass.

The south-east front continues with a two-storey curved eight-light window topped by a three-light dormer above. This front ends with a two-bay section: the ground floor is red brick with two round-headed windows and a five-light window in the eastern elevation, while the timber-framed first floor has a two-light casement on the left side and a projecting bay under a gable with a quatrefoil and three-light casement to the east elevation.

The north-east elevation is plainer in treatment. The west elevation contains seven windows overall. Central and end moulded brick gables feature two-storey bays with ten-light curved bays with mullioned windows to the first floor and mullioned and transomed windows to the ground floor. Between these gables are two linking blocks, each having two timber-framed gables on the first floor with quatrefoil motifs, four-light bays, and ogee bracing. The southernmost timber-framed section has a round-headed door with a similar sidelight to the left and a curved bay to the right with mullioned and transomed casements featuring star-shaped leaded lights. The northernmost timber-framed section is similar on the first floor, but the ground floor features a late 20th-century extension with four-light mullioned and transomed casements.

Interior features include a staircase hall with an ogee-headed screen and an oak staircase with turned balusters, plank and muntin panelling, and a gallery at the top. Other notable features comprise plastered ceilings with strapwork motifs, a wooden cupboard bearing the initials WCH and FRH, a stone four-centred fireplace with Tudor rose carvings to the spandrels and the initial H with elaborate linenfold panelling above, a fireplace with pilasters, and a large wooden fireplace with swag decoration (now converted into a storage area). The rear wing contains ribbed ceilings with plastered floral decoration.