Rye House Gatehouse

Rye House Gatehouse is a 15th-century gatehouse, originally part of a larger fortified house built for Sir Andrew Ogard, a naturalised Dane, who received permission to build crenellations in 1443. The site is located beside the river on a moated area. In 1683, the site was the location of the Rye House Plot, an attempt to murder Charles II. While the main house was demolished, the gatehouse survived and was later used as a parish workhouse before 1834. Around 1868, the site was transformed into a pleasure garden for visitors from London before being cleared and the gatehouse recently restored for Lee Valley Park. The gatehouse is the only remaining complete 15th-century structure.

Constructed of red brick in English bond, with diaper ornament created using black headers, the gatehouse features carved stonework for string courses and at the main entrance. It has a roofless upper storey and includes a crenellated parapet. The gatehouse is a tall rectangular block situated on the inner edge of the moat, facing east. A stair turret rises from the southwest corner above the parapet. A hollow-moulded stone string course runs around the base of the parapet, decorated with grotesque heads at intervals, with a similar string around the stair turret, featuring heads at each corner.

The east front is nearly symmetrical, featuring a pointed stone gateway with carved spandrels within a rectangular frame, and boarded wooden double doors. Small, upright windows flank the doorway, each with elaborate moulded brick jambs, a rectangular head, and a dripmould. False machicolations, created with arched brick corbelling and a relieving arch, are positioned above the door. An advanced wallface exhibits diaper patterning with black brick. A central merlon is decorated with a raised rib, and merlons on either side are pierced by arrow loops. Below, false machicolations with intersecting arched corbels support projecting diapered panels with moulded brick frames and large corbelled oriel windows. The left window is a 2-light design, while the right is 3-light, both with castellated tops. A large first-floor window is recessed on the left return, with a square head, moulded jambs, a label, and a drip mould.

The west elevation has a large, pointed brick gateway in two chamfered orders, a small upright window on the left with moulded jambs, a rectangular head, and a label. A corbelled chimney rises above the parapet in a tall, barley-sugar shaft with moulded cap and base. A small, understated stair window is located to the right.

Attached to the north end is a small wing set back from the main gatehouse. It features a 3-centred arched doorway leading to the gatehouse at the upper level, evidence of a tunnel vault over the ground floor, and a window in the front wall with a 3-centred rere arch at two levels. The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.