Westwood Lodge, including balustrading and steps, Broadstairs, Kent

Summary

A holiday residence of 1864 built for London stockbroker Spencer Herepath in Gothic style. The billiard room with bedroom above and an extension to the N side were added between 1907 and 1936. The service wing, part 1864, part later C19, further extended after 1936, is of lesser interest.

Description

A holiday residence of 1864 built for London stockbroker Spencer Herepath in a Gothic style. The billiard room with bedroom above and an extension to the N side were added between 1907 and 1936. The service wing, part 1864, part later C19, further extended after 1936, is not of special interest.

MATERIALS: Kentish Ragstone with stone dressings and wooden barge boards. A clay tile roof with moulded terracotta chimneystacks and 'Staffordshire Blue' ridge tiles with some intact decorative finials. The servants wing to the rear is in yellow stock brick in Flemish bond.

PLAN: an asymmetrical building originally comprising an entrance hall, well staircase, two reception rooms, and a kitchen on the ground floor and bedrooms above, with a separate service quarters. This was modified by the addition of a billiard room with bedroom above between 1907 and 1936 and the extension and attachment of the service wing from 1896.

EXTERIOR: the W or entrance front is of three bays with a central three storey tower with a steeply pitched roof with an ornamental iron finial, a lancet window to the attic under a gable, a first floor oriel window, and a recessed entrance under a four-centred arch with drip mould and a half-glazed door behind with armorial stained glass motifs in leaded panes. To the right is a large gable with fretted barge boards with a pendant, a stone tablet with shield, a first floor arched casement window and a ground floor window with segmental head. To the left is a set back bay with a first floor arched and gabled semi-dormer with fretted barge boards with pendant, and a projecting square bay with triple mullioned and transomed casement window below with a pierced frieze of quatrefoils.

The S or garden front, also of three bays, has to the W bay a first floor arched and gabled semi-dormer with fretted barge boards with pendant, and below a projecting canted bay with triple mullioned and transomed casement with a pierced stone cornice. The central bay projects with a gable with fretted barge boards and a stone tablet with shield, a first floor arched mullioned and transomed casement with pierced quatrefoils and a ground floor segmental-headed French window. The right hand bay is part single storey with a canted bay with a pierced cornice but has a set back upper floor under a hipped roof with three casement windows. Further W is a later two storey flat-roofed extension with two casement windows and the hipped end of the service range.

The E side, also of three bays, has to the N a projecting gable with fretted barge boards with finial and pendant and an ornamental date stone of 1864, a first floor arched window and canted bay to the ground floor with a cornice of quatrefoils. The remaining two bays have a semi-dormer with a fretted barge board with finial and arched window and a projecting ground floor with two casement windows and a service entrance.

The N side has a gable with arched first floor window and attached two storey yellow brick service quarters.

Attached to the main entrance is a tiled path connecting to stone balustrading on the S and W sides with shallow stone urns at the corners and two sets of piers flanking shallow flights of steps.

INTERIOR: the main entrance leads into a staircase-hall with a multi-coloured geometrically patterned tiled floor, a well staircase with octagonal end newel post, and slender turned balusters, a staircase window with leaded lights with some stained glass cames, and an arched half-glazed door with stained glass sunray pattern.

The N drawing room has a moulded cornice and two moulded ceiling beams supported on shield brackets. The S dining room has a similar cornice and two ceiling beams but the brackets have carved flowers.

On the first floor, a tiled bathroom retains an early C20 shower apparatus reputed to have been used as a treatment for epilepsy and a SE bedroom has an early C20 wooden fireplace with mirror and tiled surround. Other fireplaces in the house were replaced in the 1930s.

History

Westwood Lodge was built in 1864 as a holiday retreat for Spencer Herepath, a Kensington stockbroker whose firm specialised in South American Railway securities. The architect is not at present known but there is speculation that it could have been Henry Winnock Hayward (1825-1893) who had built houses of a similar style in Phillimore Place, Kensington near Herepath's London residence. Herepath's daughter Marion married Linley Sambourne, the celebrated Punch illustrator in 1874. After Spencer Herepath died in 1884, Mrs Herepath lived here until the property was sold in 1893.

The next owner was Harry Rickards (1841-1911), a celebrated music hall artist who became a music hall impresario in both England and Australia. This was his English estate. By 1911 he was considered probably the largest single-handed music hall manager and proprietor in the world. Subsequent owners were the Farrell family and the property has been in continuous ownership by one family from 1948 until the present day. From 1929 the estate was used for farming and market gardening.

A photograph of the entrance front soon after completion with members of the Herepath family shows little change; there was no terrace walling at this date. The house is shown on the First Edition 25'' Ordnance Survey map of 1876 as an irregular-shaped villa with the main entrance to the W, facing the carriage drive, and a conservatory to the SE. A small detached block is shown to the E. By the 1896 edition the NE side of the property and the detached wing to the E had been extended and linked to the main house. By this date a N facing wall shown on the earlier map had been removed and the grounds improved with clumps of trees. A detached aviary is shown to the NW of the house and a large range of glasshouses are shown to the NE of the house. By the 1907 edition the aviary is no longer shown. After 1907 but by the 1936 map the conservatory had been removed and replaced by a larger extension at the SE end, which included a billiard room. Subsequently the service wing was further enlarged.

Reasons for Listing

Westwood Lodge, an 1864 Gothic style purpose-built seaside holiday home for a Kensington stockbroker, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: an asymmetrical Gothic style villa built of good quality materials with varied elevations and decorative features;
* Interior fittings: the staircase-hall includes staircase, stained glass to the window and doors, tiled floor and some ceiling beams elsewhere;
* Degree of survival: the exterior is little altered, except where later extensions adjoin it. The interior retains some original fittings and the original room divisions;
* Comparators: it is an early example of a purpose-built middle class seaside holiday house, nearly 20 years earlier than a listed group a few miles away;
* Historical associations: the original owner's daughter married Edward Linley Sambourne, the celebrated Punch cartoonist. A later owner, Harry Rickards, was a celebrated music hall artist theatre impresario in both England and Australia.

External Links

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