Whittington Lodge, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home

Whittington Lodge is a former cattery built around 1907 in an Italianate style with Arts and Crafts detailing, designed by Clough Williams-Ellis. It is a two-storey structure with a trapezoidal plan, constructed of lime-washed rendered brickwork with painted tile dressings, and covered by a terracotta pantile roof. The building is centrally located within a crescent-shaped courtyard, enclosed by the former London Chatham and Dover Railway (High Level) to the west, and the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home buildings to the south and east.

The south elevation is symmetrical, featuring central doorways to both floors, flanked by windows. A rebuilt external timber stairway, supported by timber posts with a half-landing and a principal landing, provides access to the first floor. The stairway has plain splat balusters and square-section newel posts with ball finials. The two-leaved timber casement windows have depressed segmental arches with raised tile impost blocks and keystones; the first-floor windows have slatted timber shutters. A horizontal band of tiles is present above the right-hand ground floor window. The first-floor doorway is recessed, with a round-headed fanlight, beneath a rendered brick arch with a pronounced keystone. The ground-floor door, beneath the stairway’s principal landing, is square-headed, has a glazed upper panel, and is approached by two steps down from the courtyard. Both doors are framed with vertical boards.

The west elevation has a pair of recessed rectangular pivot-hung six-pane timber casement windows on the ground floor. Above, a triple flush timber casement window, each light of twelve panes, sits beneath a depressed arch with projecting tile impost blocks and keystone. The rear north elevation features a first-floor oculus with projecting rendered and painted keystones. The east elevation is blank.

The flared hipped pantile roof is topped by an octagonal glazed cupola beneath a lead-covered dome, which features a feline weather vane. The roof overhangs the walls, with a deep timber-lined soffit, supported by a cornice and cast-iron rainwater goods held by scrolled wrought iron brackets.

The interior of both floors consists of trapezoidal-plan rooms with plain rendered walls. The first floor now has a suspended ceiling but may have received natural light from above via the cupola's lantern. Two 20th-century air conditioning units against the south wall, positioned beneath the stairway's half-landing, are not of special architectural interest.