Preston Lodge, Prestonpans

Dated 1844 and initialled 'WH', Preston Lodge is a 2-storey and attic, 3-bay Jacobean villa with an L-shaped front facing south. Around 1890, a substantial iron-crested addition to the rear, facing west, effectively doubled the size of the original house. A 3-storey French pavilion is situated at the north end, featuring decorative cast-iron brattishing finials. The building is constructed of grey ashlar. The rear addition incorporates shouldered windows at the first and second floors. A cill course is visible along the north end of the towered section. The building terminates in a corniced blocking course.

The south elevation features an advanced bay to the right, with a canted window beneath a stone roof; a window is positioned above it on the first floor and within the attic. A porch sits within the re-entrant angle, displaying a pierced parapet and clasped octagonal buttresses, a glazed door, and a lattice-glazed window in its west return; all within segmental-arched openings. A further window is located above the porch on the first floor. A slightly advanced bay to the left displays regular fenestration on both floors, with a first-floor window set within a stone-fronted dormerhead that breaks the eaves.

The west elevation is five bays wide. The original house’s shaped gable is advanced to the right, with a two-leaf, 10-pane French window on the ground floor and a window above it. To the left of the ground floor window is an architraved doorpiece with a modern timber door featuring a glazed central panel and a plate glass fanlight. An architraved window sits to the right. Regular fenestration is present on the floors above, with bipartite windows in the bay to the right on both floors. An advanced bay to the left incorporates bipartite windows at ground and first floor levels, and a curvilinear, gabletted tripartite window at the attic, breaking the eaves, supported by a corbelled cill on moulded brackets. An armorial shield is set in a recessed shouldered tablet at the apex, repeated on the east return at the attic.

The north elevation has an advanced bay to the right, featuring a door at ground level (not visible in 2000), a bipartite window at first floor, and a curvilinear gabletted tripartite window at the attic breaking the eaves, supported by a corbelled cill on moulded brackets, and displaying an armorial shield within a recessed shouldered tablet. A recessed gable to the left has its ground floor obscured by a wall; a stone stair leads to a 6-panel timber door with a 2-pane rectangular fanlight to the first floor, with two windows to the left at the same level.

The east elevation is obscured by a wall, displaying an irregular pattern of windows at the first floor.

The windows are a variety of timber sash and case designs. The roof is covered in grey slate, with some modern skylights. Grouped octagonal gablehead and ridge stacks are present, corniced and topped with circular cans. Decorative moulded skews and skewputts are also visible. Cast-iron rainwater goods are in place, complete with decorative hoppers.

Rubble boundary walls with flat copes enclose the property, along with ashlar gatepiers topped with pyramidal caps. A pedestrian gate to the north has a timber door.