St Hugh's College lodges and gates

612/1/10115

ST MARGARET'S ROAD St Hugh's College lodges and gates

07-OCT-08

II BUILDING: pair of lodges, with attached gate piers and gates and attached boundary walls. 1914-16. Architect: H.T Buckland and W Haywood.

EXTERIOR: symmetrical composition in Baroque style. Lodges are ashlar, with hipped tiled roofs. Small square-plan buildings with plinth bands, moulded cornices and central panelled chimneys.One storey and attic. Fronts to road have two twelve-pane sashes to ground floor, and similar sash in tall dormer with carved stone side scrolls and segmental pediment. Sides each have single casement, eight-panel door, and sash in flat-roofed dormer with plain lead cheeks. Two similar sashes and casement to rear of west lodge; gabled projection to rear of east lodge. All ground-floor openings inset in moulded surrounds with moulded stops. Cast iron rainwater hoppers.

Ashlar gate piers with moulded panels and pedimented caps. Moulded double scrolls cap pilasters to lodges. Central cast iron carriage gates. Pedestrian side gates between railings on ashlar dwarf walls. Short length of ashlar wall to east. High rubble stone boundary wall extends along St. Margaret's Road to west.

INTERIORS: not seen.

HISTORY: St. Hugh's was founded as St. Hugh's Hall in 1886 for female students and was the third such foundation at Oxford. In 1911 it became a college by name, and in 1959 a full college.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: pair of lodges and gates creating a grand ashlar entrance to St. Hugh's College, arranged in a symmetrical composition to create an architectural focal point of entrance/chapel building. The lodges are of much the same First-War date as, and by the same architects (Buckland and Haywood) as, the main College building, also recommended for listing. The lodges and associated gates and walling are elegant and carefully detailed, and part of the overall public face of the college.