Bearland Lodge

GLOUCESTER

SO8218NE LONGSMITH STREET 844-1/7/195 (South side) 23/01/52 No.55 Bearland Lodge

GV II*

Town house, now offices. c1720 for William Lane, barrister; c1970 alterations and additions at rear. Brick, painted on front elevation, stone details,slate roof. Double-depth block, with entrance hall and stair to left. EXTERIOR: two storeys, attic and cellar. Front of four bays with brick plinth, projecting band at first-floor level, and crowning wood modillion cornice surmounted by a cross gable pediment above the two central bays; the tympanum of the pediment sculpted in high relief by John Ricketts: in the centre the figure of Perseus, in a billowing cloak and wearing a helmet, sitting on the back of a lion with a winged cherub to right, a staff in his left hand and, in his right hand, his shield reflecting the head of the Medusa. On the ground floor the entrance doorway in second bay from left, with two stone steps to threshold, is framed by slender, fluted Corinthian pilasters and entablature with pulvinated frieze with a segmental pediment above. Sashes with glazing bars to either side of doorway and four sashes to first floor (3x4 panes), in openings with flat-arched, rubbed brick heads. Rear of house remodelled c1970. INTERIOR: entrance hall, panelled to full height with panelled archway with basket arch at rear leading to stair well and rear passage; dog-leg staircase rising to attic with closed string, square newels, toad back handrail and barleysugar balusters; front room to right, the former parlour, has dado of fielded panels capped by moulded chair rail, full height fielded panels above and a moulded cornice; in the rear wall a full height, apsidal niche framed by fluted Corinthian pilasters standing on panelled pedestals at dado level, with capitals supporting moulded panel blocks on each side of the head of the niche; shelves within the niche are supported on richly carved, pierced acanthus brackets; late C18 chimney-piece on canted angle to right of niche believed to be replacement of lost original. On the first floor the front room divided by later partitions and its original C18 chimney-piece now visible within a passage. HISTORY: William Lane of Apperley (Deerhurst) was a barrister of the Middle Temple who,in 1746, transferred the lease of the house to his close friend Capel Payne, Town Clerk of

Gloucester from 1723 to 1764. The pediment with its sculpture is not consistent with the facade of this small 4-bay house, and the sculpture probably came from Ladybellegate House (qv), where a similar pediment is depicted in Kip's view of 1712.

Listing NGR: SO8295718563