The Old Coach House And Sunny Lodge

878/0/10030

BIRCHINGTON SPENCER ROAD The Old Coach House and Sunny Lodge

08-MAY-02

GV II Built as a pair of stables with servants quarters above, now a pair of houses. Built c1882, architect John Pollard Seddon with sgraffito panels executed by the sculptor George Frampton. Ground floor roughcast, first floor applied timber framing and roughcast. Half-hipped renewed pantiled roof with brick chimneystack capped with terracotta.

Two storeys: three windows to sides, two to front. Some original windows with glazing bars to upper parts to first floor, some replacement windows. Ground floor has C20 metal-framed casements and French windows. Sides have penticed brick C20 porches and garage extensions. Sunny Lodge has an extension added in 1911. The principal external feature is a series of sgraffito panels of cherubs undertaking Kentish games and pastimes. The front also has a panel inscribed "J P Seddon ARIBA Arch".

INTERIOR: Sunny Lodge retains original staircase of half-winder type but with stick balusters covered over, some four-panelled doors and a first floor room with original built-in cupboards and a wooden bolection-moulded fireplace with tiled surround along one wall. The Old Coach house has a similar staircase.

History: These are two of five stables with servants' accommodation above built to serve John Pollard Seddon's Tower Bungalows. The sgraffito panels may have been made in Frampton's studio and assembled on site. The subject matter includes skaters, a blacksmith with anvil and horseshoes, cherubs pulling a chariot, sailing ships etc. There are very few examples in England of sgraffito work and these examples at Birchington are thought to be the only examples executed by George Frampton.

[Jane Lamb "Sgraffito in England 1600-1950." 1998.]