Chute Lodge

Chute Lodge is a country house, now divided into two flats, dating from 1768 and designed by Sir Robert Taylor for John Freeman of the East India Company. The house is constructed of red brick in a header bond, with the basement storey faced with stone rustication. It has a piano nobile and attic floors, and a slate roof. The design is symmetrical, with the north side serving as the main entrance front and the south as the garden front. The plan incorporates a central rotunda stairwell, with principal reception rooms flanking either side.

The north front, with five bays, breaks the central three bays forward and crowns them with a pediment. Flights of stairs lead to a raised terrace over three arches featuring groined vaults, and a balustrade (sections of which are now missing). The piano nobile has three shallow arches with a continuous stone cornice and moulded stone architraves. A pair of doors fills the central opening, flanked by 12-paned sash windows. Six-paned sashes are found on the upper floor. A wide timber pediment, featuring paired modillions and a roundel, tops the attics. More recently, a balustrade has been added to bays one and five, along with a small window in bay one.

The south garden elevation features the central three bays canted for the full height of the building. Main windows on this elevation have architraves with alternating vermiculated rusticated quoins in the Gibbs style, and rounded heads, with flat aprons below. A pair of basement doors is emphasised by rusticated voussoirs. Paired modillion eaves run along the top. Three early 20th century tripartite dormers, with sashed windows and arched centre lights, are visible from the roof. Symmetrical stacks are present. The side elevations are consistent in design, featuring a canted central section to the basement and piano nobile, with a hipped roof. A symmetrical addition provides an extra bay on the north return. A service wing extends from the east side, added or rebuilt in the late 19th century with a return end added in the early 20th century; these are built using similar materials, but lack window dressings. The windows are primarily 12- and 16-pane sashes.

The interior was inaccessible at the time of inspection, but an oval flying stair is located off the entrance hall. A library, central to the west front, contains a segmental headed apse with stucco decoration, alongside other delicate stucco work throughout the house.

According to reports, the house occupies the site of an earlier Elizabethan house that was destroyed by fire. Drawings signed by Taylor, and sold around 1978, confirm his authorship.