North Lodge at Barrow Municipal Cemetery

Summary

Former cemetery lodge, 1874, to designs of Paley & Austin.

Reasons for Designation

This former cemetery lodge, 1874 to designs of Paley & Austin, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a good composition combined with an effective use of silver limestone and red-sandstone dressings to produce an attractive cemetery building;

* a good example of the work produced by the highly regarded architectural firm of Paley & Austin;

* it retains a series of internal features, including floor tiles, roof structure, and carpentry.

Group value:

* the lodge has strong group value with the other listed buildings in Barrow Cemetery and contributes to the special interest of the wider cemetery landscape (registered Grade II) by Edward Kemp.

History

Barrow Municipal Cemetery was laid out by Edward Kemp of Liverpool between 1872 and 1874 on land given by the Duke of Devonshire. The cemetery occupies a roughly rectangular area of about 66 acres. It was designed with several sinuous pathways and complementary planting, with a gatehouse and lodges, north lodge, entrance, and Roman Catholic, Non-conformist and Church of England chapels designed by Edward Paley and Hubert Austin. North Lodge was constructed as a house for a cemetery keeper and appears to include an office entered from a separate opening to that of the main body of the house.

Edward Kemp (1817-1891) was a landscape gardener who trained under Joseph Paxton at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire and went on to become one of the leading park and garden designers of the C19, working on both public and private commissions. Kemp is known as a nationally renowned landscape designer, whose notable commissions include an important chain of late-C19 parks in Liverpool, and several cemeteries.

The Paley & Austin architectural firm was highly regarded, and its output is considered outstanding in both a regional and a national context. This is especially so during the period from about 1870 to 1910 when it is linked with a wealth of fine churches of diverse nature. The firm has been described as one of England's most remarkable architectural practices.

Details

Former cemetery lodge, 1874 to designs of Paley & Austin.

MATERIALS: coursed silver limestone with red, ashlar sandstone dressings; graduated slate roof.

PLAN: two-storeys with a compact L-shaped plan and porch in angle.

EXTERIOR: situated at the secondary entrance to Borough Cemetery at the junction of Devonshire Road and Thorncliffe Road. The building has a chamfered plinth, quoins, sill bands and ground-floor impost band. All windows have plain timber sashes. The front gable has a mullioned window of two round-headed lights beneath a round-arched hoodmould and there are two round-arched windows over. There are string courses across the gable which also has shaped kneelers and copings with a roll-moulded apex. A lean-to porch in the angle on the right has wooden superstructure and segmentally arched doorway with a pendant; there is a cusped round-arched light to the right and five more on the right return. The main roof has terracotta ridge cresting, and an ashlar stack with five rounded flues. The gabled right return has three-light windows to each floor detailed as the front of the building.

INTERIOR: the porch has red and black floor tiles laid in a diagonal pattern. There are also two entrances with red sandstone chamfered shoulder-arched surrounds and shallow triangular lintels; one of these was a separate opening into an office within the lodge. The other entrance leads into the main body of the house. The original simple planform remains and rooms are plain without plasterwork. A simple winder stair with turned balusters and a polished timber handrail and ceiling leads to the first floor; rooms have coved ceilings, panelled timber reveals to the main bedroom, and doors are mostly four-panel replacements. The sawn timber roof trusses are visible and have stop chamfers.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

388438

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Brandwood, G, The Architecture of Sharpe, Paley and Austin, (2012)

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