Shorncliffe Lodge

Shorncliffe Lodge is a mid-19th century house built in a whimsical Gothic style, reflecting the Regency period. The house has an irregular plan. The front elevation is two to three storeys high with a basement, and is stuccoed. A central, pedimented gable features pierced bargeboards. Lancet-headed windows are present with dripmoulding; the second-floor windows have foliated corbels, and the first-floor windows feature eight corbels shaped like assorted medieval heads. A square porch has a round-headed arch and double lancet lights on its sides. To the left of the gabled portion is a subdivided section now known as "The Keyes," with a doorcase featuring trefoliated heads. The section to the right is called "Woodside" and includes a two-storey extension to its extreme right. The garden elevation includes a central pierced gable, a coved eaves cornice, and a stringcourse. Mainly casement windows are on the left-hand portion, featuring iron balconettes on the second floor, and dripmoulding to the right-hand portion. There are two three-light bays to the ground floor, and a central three-light curved bow to the first floor, composed of three Gothic pointed lights and a balcony with a band of quatrefoils. This is supported on four square columns decorated with trefoliated panels and fan tracery above, and includes triple trefoliated-headed lights to French windows behind. A later glass conservatory has been added. The garden elevation dominates the hillside above Sandgate, and this view is part of the reason for its inclusion on the list.

The house was purchased by Edward Albert Sassoon, a prominent British merchant banker and politician of the Baghdadi Jewish business dynasty, and his wife Aline Caroline de Rothschild, following Sassoon’s election as MP for Hythe. The Rothschild family had owned property in the area since the early 19th century, using it as a staging point for couriers and carrier pigeons to communicate with the Continent.