Gable Lodge Southcliffe

Gable Lodge and Southcliffe are a pair of semi-detached hotels dating to circa 1900, situated on Lee Road in Lynton. They are constructed of rubble with brick dressings and have slate roofs. The buildings are strongly modelled in a late Picturesque style and exhibit a near-symmetrical design.

Each building is two storeys and has an attic, originally with two windows. Gable Lodge has a small, recessed bay to the left, featuring a half-hipped roof with deep eaves. This bay contains a single sash window and a door composed of three narrow vertical glazed panels with a plain transom light, set within a flat pointed brick arch, displaying brick dripcourses to dropped ends. To the right of the recessed bay is a prominent gable, housing a glazed door leading to a balcony with balustrade. The gable framing features trefoil openings in the spandrels. Below the gable is a shallow square bay with a tripartite sash window and narrow return lights, set under a steep hipped slate roof. This bay has stone corner mullions. A gabled dormer with a four-pane sash and deep eaves sits above a pair of glazed doors, also with transom lights, opening onto a balcony with open splat balusters. A similar door with a transom light assembly is located on the ground floor. A narrow light is found in the return wall leading to the balcony.

The return wall to the left of the porch extension includes a large gabled sash dormer above a large tripartite sash window. The adjoining Southcliffe mirrors the centre section of Gable Lodge, retaining the balustrade. It features a pyramidal gable with a small dormer above a deep balcony with a three-faceted splat rail and two slender cast-iron columns on brick pedestals. In the main wall-plane is a wide three-light French door and transom light opening. The ground floor has narrow four-pane sashes, and a door set under the balcony. A further entrance door, with brick dressings, and a large gabled dormer with sash window are present on the right return wall.

The rear elevations are rendered with wide gables and feature a slate-hung stack in the central valley. A prominent ridge stack is located on the party wall, and a smaller stack is present on Gable Lodge. While Gable Lodge retains original plain sashes, the windows of Southcliffe are late 20th-century replacements. The dormers and gables are finished with terracotta finials. The interiors were not inspected. These buildings represent a characteristic and well-detailed example of late Victorian villa design and are considered the earliest and best examples in the row developed on Lee Road.