Braehead Lodge, Main Street, St Boswells

Braehead Lodge, Main Street, St Boswells

Braehead Lodge is a detached three-bay single-storey lodge with an attic, built around 1906. Designed by Francis W. Deas in conjunction with the adjacent Braehead House to the north, it is executed in a similar Scottish Renaissance revival style. The building is rectangular in plan and fronts Main Street, positioned immediately adjacent to the entrance archway of Braehead House.

The lodge has been extended by a single-bay two-storey addition to the southeast, with a later single-storey bay added subsequently. A conservatory to the west, a single-storey extension to the east and a garage to the north are excluded from the listing in accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997. The property is currently in use as a domestic dwelling with some alterations to the internal layout made in 2018.

The walls are harled and painted, with dressings in ashlar stone. Architectural detailing includes crowstepped gable ends, skewputts and corbelling. The main south elevation has three window openings of varying sizes and unevenly spaced, with corbelling at the southeast corner. The west elevation is gabled with an attic window over the later conservatory. The rear north elevation features two wall-headed dormer windows at attic level with a crowstepped gablet over the parapet. The gabled east elevation has its upper floor projecting on corbelling and contains a single window opening to each floor. The northeast corner is abutted by the later extensions, which include a projecting attic window to the north carried on ashlar sandstone piers, and a relocated entrance doorway to the south with an ashlar sandstone pediment.

The pitched roof is slated with diminishing courses to the front and replacement slates to the rear. The large centrally placed chimney on the rear pitch is harled with coping and four clay cans. The later extensions have flat roofs concealed behind masonry-topped parapets. Window openings vary in size with plain surrounds and oversized painted cills. Windows comprise a combination of original small-paned sliding timber sashes and recent double-glazed replacements.

The interior comprises a kitchen and sitting room to the south, a former parlour to the northwest and a bathroom in the east extension. A staircase to the north leads to three bedrooms at attic level. Some features of the early 20th-century decorative scheme remain visible, including a simple timber stair, timber skirtings, door and window architraves and panelled doors. A green and white marble fireplace is located in the sitting room, and a cast-iron fireplace surround in the former parlour. The internal layout has been partially altered.

A low-level rubble whinstone boundary wall with pink sandstone coping lines Main Street, curving towards the adjoining entrance arch of Braehead House. This incorporates a rubble coal shed with timber coal hatch and concrete roof, featuring a curved east wall. The rear garden is terraced by rubblestone walls with pink coping and enclosed by matching boundary walls of Braehead House. An iron bootscraper is located in the south yard, and the timber entrance door features strap hinges and a matching letter slot.