Royal Geographical Society

The Royal Geographical Society building, now a headquarters for a learned society, was originally a mansion constructed between 1874 and 1875 by Richard Norman Shaw for William and Alice Lowther. A subsequent extension was added between 1928 and 1930, designed by G. L. Kennedy and F. B. Nightingale for the Royal Geographical Society. The building is constructed of red brick with gauged and rubbed brick dressings, featuring gabled and hipped plain tile roofs and tall fluted brick stacks.

The design is a complex half-H plan, incorporating a porch to the right of the central hall and a projecting former stable range from the wing to the left. The architecture is in the Queen Anne style and includes a complex facade of two storeys and an attic, with three main bays at the centre, flanked by wings with hipped roofs. Segmental arches and flat arches on the second floor feature cross windows with leaded lights. Two pedimented bays break through the coved cornice at the centre; the wing to the right includes a semi-circular arched doorway and a first-floor balcony with rendered coving, from which a pedimented dormer breaks through the hipped roof's coved cornice. The wing to the left is characterised by tall stacks rising through the coved cornice of its hipped roof. The building's composition is further defined by string courses punctuated by pilasters, largely on dormer windows and bay windows. A simpler two-storey wing is located to the left, incorporating former stables with pedimented dormer windows and blind oculi. Rear and side elevations mirror this style, with tall pedimented dormers above canted bay windows and a lateral stack to the recessed bay of the rear elevation.

The 1928-30 extension to the left presents a single-storey design with a tripartite window on a canted return. Sculptures of Shackleton by S. Sergeant Jagger (circa 1932) and Dr Livingstone by T. B. Huxley-Jones (circa 1953) are set in classical stone niches.

The interior showcases fine Queen Anne details, including moulded cornices, classical fireplaces, and panelled doors set within eared and pedimented architraves. Notable rooms include the Hall, with a panelled dado, walnut-beamed ceiling, and a bolection-panelled overmantle above a classical fireplace featuring tiles displaying the coats of arms of the Lowther family, painted by Alice Lowther. A large semi-circular archway leads to a stair-hall with a panelled dado and a fine turned-baluster staircase rising above a former Flower Room. The Map Room, formerly the Drawing Room to the rear of the hall, showcases a decorative plaster frieze and a coffered ceiling with decorative plaster spandrels. The 1928-30 extension accommodates a large lecture room and a Soanian-style ambulatory.

Lowther Lodge was recognised as one of the earliest and most influential examples of the Queen Anne style, celebrated as an “artistic landmark” in 1875.