Summerlands Lodge

Summerlands Lodge

Summerlands Lodge is a substantial two-storey building with attics, built of brown brick in Flemish bond with rubbed red brick dressings, rendered pilasters and a wooden cornice. The tiled mansard roof is topped with moulded brick chimneystacks and a central square wooden belvedere with an octagonal cupola. The building follows a roughly E-plan and is aligned north-west to south-east.

The entrance front faces north-west and is symmetrical, comprising 13 bays with the central and two end bays projecting. The central bay features a projecting pediment with wooden modillion cornice and an oculus surrounded by enriched rubbed brick moulding. The first floor staircase window is a wooden mullioned and transomed casement with four stained glass panels in the transoms. The end pilasters carry swags to their capitals, with lion's heads and floral drops below. The stone doorcase has a curved pediment bearing a shield dated 1906, half-columns and wooden double doors. Flanking windows with carved stone aprons flank the doorcase; the left window apron incorporates a foundation stone laid by Mrs CHW Reece on 29 March 1906.

On either side of the central section are set-back sections of four bays, each with three gabled dormers fitted with later 20th-century top-opening casements. These sections feature a wooden modillion eaves cornice, a brick band between floors, and four moulded 12-pane sashes with horns, rubbed brick architraves and carved aprons. The projecting end sections display pediments with wooden modillion cornices, oculi, rendered pilasters and two 12-pane sashes on each floor, with taller ground floor windows.

The west side elevation contains two sash windows and a mid-20th-century iron fire escape. The east side elevation has two windows and a four-storey flat-roofed lift tower.

The south or garden front comprises nine bays, with the central three bays projecting and a second floor pediment above, and a large curved bay on the ground floor. The three bays on either side have a triple flat-roofed dormer, a gabled dormer and three sash windows below. The south-east corner contains a splayed wooden entrance porch. The south-east wing retains four original bays before a 1960s/70s two-storey brick and aggregate addition. The south-west wing is similar, also with a 1960s/70s two-storey wing to the south (these extensions are not included in the listing).

The central entrance leads into a vestibule with six-panelled double doors, each with three glazed panels featuring leaded lights, opening into a two-storey staircase hall. The ground floor is lined with painted panelling to plate-shelf height and a moulded wooden cornice, with two round-headed arches leading to corridors on either side. The well staircase has a gallery at first floor level with painted turned balusters and square moulded newel posts, with wall panelling continuing at first floor level. The stained glass panels at the top of the staircase window depict the coats of arms of Hertford and University College, Oxford (the colleges of the building's two founders, who established Doon House School) and two further coats of arms bearing the school mottoes "FIDE ET LABORE" and "MELIORA SEQUIA".

Both ground and first floor rooms and corridors retain original doorcases with five-panelled doors, moulded cornices and skirting boards. Corridors contain wood and glazed screens, and rooms retain window architraves. At the eastern corner is a smaller well staircase with moulded balusters and square newel posts. Further along the western ground floor corridor is an additional small staircase with stick balusters and turned newel posts. The date 1906 appears on the building's shield, indicating its construction date.