East Lodge, Lamington House

East Lodge, Lamington House

Built in 1858, East Lodge is a single-storey gate lodge with gabled attic, comprising three bays in cottage orne style. It forms part of the planned estate village created by Alexander Baillie Cochrane (1816–1900), who inherited the Baillie family estate of Lamington in 1838 and became Lord Lamington in 1883. Following his marriage to Anabella Drummond in 1844, he embarked on a major programme of estate improvements, beginning with substantial Elizabethan-style additions to the existing shooting lodge to create Lamington House (now demolished). The village was rebuilt to the north-east of the house between the 1840s and 1870s, with the main road subsequently redirected to the north-west between the two gate lodges to afford privacy to the house and estate.

The lodge is constructed of whinstone rubble with chamfered ashlar quoins and margins. It features an overhanging slate roof with timber bargeboarded eaves and a prominent decorative timber porch. The defining architectural feature is the highly decorative diamond-pane glazing pattern with margined lights to the windows and fanlight, which survives intact. A single chimney stack rises to the rear. A flat-roofed kitchen extension was added to the rear in the later 20th century.

The original gatepiers have been replaced by circa 1930 rubble-capped rendered circular piers with a pedestrian gate to the right. Twentieth-century timber latticed gates complete the entrance. The original gatepiers were known as the 'Heather Gates', earthbound rubble pillars planted with heather. The lodge originally featured ornamental bargeboards, as did some other estate buildings.

The architect of the village is not known, though William Spence (1806?–1883) may have been involved in building some estate structures. Spence had worked as assistant to David Bryce and William Burn, and elements of their architectural school are evident in the village buildings. The architects Wardrop and Brown are recorded as having carried out a music room addition to Lamington House in 1858, the same year as the gate lodge. The Lamington Papers in the Mitchell Archive include a letter from David Bryce in 1838 regarding scaled-down plans for the shooting lodge at Lamington, though it is unclear whether Bryce executed this commission. East Lodge survives as a characteristic example of estate gate lodge architecture with particularly fine surviving glazing detail, maintaining the planned character of the Lamington estate village as originally designed.