The Lodge

The Lodge, Gainsborough Gardens

A lodge dated 1886, designed by H.S. Legg for the gardener of Gainsborough Gardens, which was developed between 1882 and 1895.

The building occupies a critical position at the entrance to Gainsborough Gardens, sited on a narrow, wedge-shaped sloping corner plot at the neck of the drive. It is a single-storey building with attics, of rectangular plan and asymmetrical elevations. The entrance sits on the narrow base of the plot, with a single-storey bay at the corner comprising two offset windows between a large stone corbelled shaft. An enriched gabled dormer rises above the entrance, matched by a simpler dormer at the opposing gable. Overlooking the gardens is a shallow single-storey canted bay under a deep gable that breaks through the eaves line of the main roof. A tall chimney with four moulded shafts on a square base sits centrally on the ridge of the roof.

The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond with tile-hung gables, hipped red plain-tile roofs, pebble-dash rendered coved cornice, and plain rendered plinth. Dressings and fittings are of stone, terracotta, and lead.

On the entrance elevation, a part-glazed door with two upper lights and a large central panel of small panes sits over a raised and fielded lower panel in a plain brick opening beneath a porch. The porch has a half-hipped tiled roof topped by a stone or terracotta finial and is supported on lead-clad piers on a tall brick base. Above, breaking through the eaves line at transom level, is a dormer with a tile-hung gable and finial. The window has a stone mullion and transom, with an enriched apron bearing a cartouche. Upper deep-set lights are small-paned; the lower lights are a pair of sashes. The cornice is coved with pebble-dash rendered panels.

At the angle stands a single-storey offset bay containing two offset window elements each under a small hipped roof over a continuous dentil cornice. Between them is a projecting stone-moulded shaft on a corbel, carved with a trumpet-like flower capital.

The two-and-a-half-bay south elevation features a large single-storey canted bay under a gable, supported on moulded red-brick corbels. The gable is enriched with alternating bands of fishscale and plain tiles and carries a date stone inscribed 1886, surmounted by a finial. The deep cill has a cast-iron window guard. Windows throughout are tall, narrow timber horned sashes with an upper small-paned fixed light in plain brick openings under cambered red-brick arches; those at the centre of the canted bay and to the west dormer are paired. All timber windows have stone cills.

The west-facing dormer is similarly proportioned to that over the entrance, but its gable is in brick with a timber window. A tall central axial stack on a square brick base has grouped octagonal shafts with deep moulded caps.

Legg employs an eclectic Vernacular Revival manner, for which he is noted, to create a picturesque statement.

Gainsborough Gardens was laid out between 1882 and 1895 on land belonging to the Wells and Campden Charity Trust. Plots were developed speculatively under the close scrutiny of the Trust and their Surveyor H.S. Legg. The development adopted the newly established ethos shown at Bedford Park, Chiswick, developed from 1875, where different styles of building cohere informally in a planned, leafy environment. E.J. May, recently appointed as principal architect at Bedford Park, designed the first buildings—Nos. 3 and 4, Gainsborough Gardens—in 1884. Both architecturally and historically, this represented a significant step in changing attitudes towards the emerging suburbs.

This development took place against the background of steps to limit expansion onto Hampstead Heath and the preservation of Parliament Hill Fields, an achievement attributed to C.E. Maurice who built and lived at No. 9A. He was married to the sister of Octavia Hill, philanthropist and founder of the National Trust.

The history of Gainsborough Gardens is prominent in the history of the protection of open spaces, particularly in Hampstead, where the seeds of national awareness were sown. The whole scheme and individual houses are well documented, providing an important record of the Gardens' development. The outcome is a scheme of significant historic and architectural importance with particular aesthetic quality based on a fine balance between building and open space, both of which survive almost intact.