St John'S Lodge

St John’s Lodge is a villa dating from 1818-19, originally designed by John Raffield for C A Tulk. It was altered between 1831 and 1832 by Decimus Burton for Lord Wellesley. Further substantial alterations and extensions occurred between 1846 and 1848 by Charles Barry, assisted by Ambrose Poynter, for the banker Isaac Goldsmith. Subsequent interior alterations and decoration took place between 1892 and around 1895, undertaken by R Weir, with H W Londsdale, and landscaping by Weir Schultz. The villa is one of the four surviving villas that formed part of Nash’s original layout for Regent's Park.

The building is constructed of stucco with a slate roof. It is an example of a Grecian villa that was elaborated into an Italianate “casina” by Barry. Barry’s extensions create an east entrance forecourt. The lodge is two and three storeys high, with a five-window front and a three-bay entrance front situated between the wings, and a west front featuring a central bow.

The ground floor and entrance are screened by a colonnaded loggia, which has evolved into a large Venetian porch at the centre. This porch is framed by panelled piers and surmounted by a pediment that rises into the upper floors. The first-floor windows are architraved and corniced, set within slightly projecting bays. There are two windows in the attic storey. A main cornice runs above the second floor, with an attic cornice and blocking course above. The former library and ballroom wings, which are channelled, have Venetian windows to their east ends, and relief panels above the impost string, with circular bust niches in the spandrels. An impost string returns below blind consoled oculi on the sides, while a plinth and a bold crowning cornice with urn-capped dies provide the parapet. The west front retains its original, although heightened, giant pilastered bow, featuring architraved windows.

The interior, despite alterations, retains elements of Raffield’s original work, notably the Soanian vestibule, but is predominantly characterised by Barry’s and Poynter’s rich Cinquecento style. The ballroom frescoes were removed but Poynter’s chimneypiece and double doors remain. A central saloon-hall, with galleries by Barry, is notable, alongside unfinished frescoes of the signs of the Zodiac by H W Londsdale who also contributed to the painted decoration of the central rooms for Lord Bute. A staircase and library annexe were added by Weir Schultz, although his circular chapel has been demolished.

The formal "Dutch" or "Old English" garden on the east axis, beyond the wings, may be part of Weir Schultz’s landscaping for Lord Bute.