East Lodge and gateway, Christ's Hospital School

East Lodge and Gateway, Christ's Hospital School

The lodge dates from about 1905 and was built by Sir Aston Webb and Edward Ingress Bell for Christ's Hospital School in an Elizabethan style. The attached gate piers and gates were designed by John Shaw or John Shaw Junior and date from between 1832 and 1836, but were moved and installed here at the same time as the lodge was constructed.

LODGE

The two-storey lodge has an octagonal plan, with longer sides facing the cardinal points. The building stands at right-angles to the drive, The Avenue, which runs roughly north-south at this point. At the centre of the western elevation is a double-height projecting bay, with the entrance porch at ground-floor level.

The lodge is constructed of red brick laid in English bond with roughcast sections and ashlar dressings of Portland and Bath stone. The roof is tiled. The stone-mullioned windows contain metal-framed casements with leaded lights.

The ground floor and the shorter sides are of red brick banded with stone, whilst the first-floor sections are rendered. Projecting pilasters define the edges of the shorter sides, each capped by a triangular stone pediment with a roughcast face, supporting an obelisk finial. The architect's plans show the pediments flanked by pairs of ball finials, which are no longer, if ever, in place. The pyramidal roof rises to a tall square chimney with projecting panels and a moulded stone cap. There is an eaves cornice of diagonally-set brick.

The entrance is on the south side of the porch and is approached by three stairs. It has a segmental-arched doorway set in a stone doorcase with carved spandrels and a flat moulded timber hood. The original door with its multi-paned glazing remains.

Each of the projecting sides contains two vertical mullioned and transomed windows – one at ground-floor level and one at first-floor level. Of the longer sections, those facing the road are blind at ground-floor level, with the northern section having two mullioned windows set horizontally and separated by a down-pipe. On the south side are brick openings – a large round-headed arch to the east leads to the former wash-house, and a narrow segmental-arched opening leads to the former scullery, which also connects with the lodge internally; both spaces are now in use for storage.

Internally, the building is divided roughly in quarters, with the stair rising in the south-western section, following the angle of the walls. The simple balustrade is thought to be original, having square newel posts with square moulded finials; the balusters have been boxed in or removed. An archway leads from the porch into a central passage which runs from east to west; there is a short passage in the same position on the first floor.

The interior, thought always to have been simple, has been through modernisation and refurbishment, and retains few decorative historic features, though a number of doorcases remain, together with some skirtings, moulded timber window cills and elaborate wrought-iron window-catches. The historic character of the building largely consists in the idiosyncratic plan and room shapes, with the lowest part of the roof structure being exposed, and in the windows with their heavy mullions.

All chimneypieces have been removed, though the centrally-located chimneybreasts remain; there is a 20th-century replacement chimneypiece in the ground-floor's north-eastern room, originally the kitchen. The former larder, in the south-east corner, is now the kitchen. Upstairs, the wall between the two eastern bedrooms has been removed. Above the porch is a bathroom, in the original position, but with modern fittings; the original WC in the south-west corner has also been replaced.

GATEWAY

The gate piers and gates date from between 1832 and 1836. The piers are constructed of Portland stone with Bath stone capitals, the short flanking walls of Bath stone, and brick banded with stone. The gates are of iron.

The gate piers are set on either side of The Avenue, with narrow flanking walls, and an outer pier to the west.

The chamfered piers are square in section, each standing on a plain chamfered plinth, and with a tall, elaborately carved capital in three stages. The first stage of the capital has a roll-moulding above which is the chamfer-stop. The main stage has a figure of a child to each corner, dressed in the distinctive Christ's Hospital uniform. To the south face is a Tudor rose in relief with a coronet above; to the north face are the Christ's Hospital arms, beneath a traceried tented canopy rising through the third stage, topped by a three-dimensional fleur-de-lys. There are fleur-de-lys to the east and west faces.

At the bottom of each face is a banner bearing lettering, now largely illegible, but thought possibly to represent the text 'Fear God / Honour the King / Love the Brotherhood'. There are crenellations around the top of the second stage. Above, the smaller third stage is also stop-chamfered, with a fleur-de-lys to the south face. The piers are surmounted by cast-iron lanterns with ogival glazing and crouching lions to the feet. At the top of the eastern lantern is a figure of Edward VI.

The gates are double-leaved with dog-bars; the bars have alternate fleur-de-lys and spear-head finials. The central, closing finial is a Gothic pinnacle.

To either side of the piers are narrow flanking stone walls; to the west is an outer pier of the same height as the wall, of brick banded with stone. Walls and pier are topped with a moulded stone coping; the coping of the pier is enriched with a dentil course.