Brookdale Lodge

Brookdale Lodge is a private hotel, originally built as a private house in 1881 by architect William Messum Robbins. The building stands on the south side of Brookdale Avenue in Ilfracombe and has late 20th-century additions on its north and west sides.

The house is constructed of red brick with details in wood, terracotta, and cream-coloured brick. The roof is covered with darkened red tiles, some of fish-scale pattern (tarred on the south side), with crested red ridge tiles and two ornate iron finials on projections to the north and east. Two red brick chimneys on the south side have moulded caps of cream brick.

The plan is eccentric and basically L-shaped, with a main east-west range having a south range at right-angles to it. A canted bay projects on the north side, and another triangular-plan bay sits at the east end. A small block occupies the south-east angle of the L, with a single-storey, four-sided bay projecting from its east side.

The exterior presents two storeys with a garret and a single-storey projection on the south side. The north side, four windows wide, displays Gothic style with a large Renaissance gallery at the east end. Ground-storey windows are mostly narrow with moulded jambs and pointed arches in moulded red and cream brick, springing from moulded imposts. The upper storey of the south wing has a similar, larger three-light window with wooden mullions and transoms; the arch head contains wooden Gothic tracery. Most windows have plain sashes, but the three upper-storey windows flanking the canted bay on the north side have two-light wood casements. Above the two left-hand ones are two dormer windows, each with three wood-mullioned lights and a pent roof. Many windows contain multi-coloured leaded glass, including the pointed heads of ground-storey windows, the casements and dormers on the north side, the upper sashes of three small segmental-headed windows in the upper storey of the south-east angle block, and the whole of the large south gable window.

The most striking feature is at the east end, in the upper storey: a large, open, five-sided wooden gallery projecting on wooden brackets. Its roof is supported by four turned posts, with a railing between their feet featuring turned balusters on a carved base; the baluster heads are linked by small cusped arches. The flat rear wall of the gallery is of panelled wood with a five-sided projection in the centre, its upper parts glazed. Fronts are finished with a coved eaves cornice; the canted bay on the north side has deeply projecting eaves on large curved wooden brackets. Set against the eastern chimney on the south side is a small brick gable with moulded bargeboards and a decorative terracotta panel. The south range and the small block adjoining it on the east both have panelled bargeboards. Two decorated rainwater pipes appear on the north side and three more on the south. On the north side, behind a late 20th-century glazed verandah, is inscribed the date 1881 and a monogram of William Messum Robbins's initials.

Late 20th-century alterations include a single-storey glazed verandah on the west side and a two-storey red brick addition at the south end. The block in the south-east angle has a mass-produced bow window in the ground storey.

The interior contains details including an ornate central entrance stair hall with tiled floor, doors with sunken panels and attached flanking columns, and a rear left-hand open-well stair with a full-height newel column and turned balusters, along with cornices and fireplaces. Robbins built the house for his own occupation and lived there. It represents an interesting example of a notable local Victorian architect's own house, designed in a robust style mixing Gothic and Queen Anne elements.