Clifton Lodge

Details

TWICKENHAM

22/0/10154 ST MARGARET'S DRIVE 01-SEP-04 (North side) Clifton Lodge (Formerly listed as: KILMOREY ROAD Clifton Lodge)

II Detached villa, probably incorporating parts of an earlier orangery. Built between 1852 and 1865 in Italianate style but ground floor front rooms probably reusing remains of an early C19 orangery to Twickenham Park, service wing extended soon after 1894. Built of stock brick with stuccoed eaves cornice and band between floors and hipped roof with brick chimneystacks. Two storeys: seven windows facing south east, other elevations have irregular fenestration. Sashes with marginal glazing to the original part of the building and with vertical glazing bars and horns to the service wing.
EXTERIOR: Principal south east elevation has projecting central bay with tripartite window to first floor. All first floor windows have marginal glazing and panelled wooden blind boxes. The ground floor has cambered arched windows connected by stuccoed impost blocks. As the elliptical-arched windows are not found elsewhere on the building and the first floor brickwork is set back and separated by a deep frieze and cornice this suggests the upper floor is an addition to an earlier building. The central doorcase has a rectangular fanlight, the door is a C20 replacement with 10 panels. It is flanked by sidelights, sashes with horns. The entrance has a large and most unusual early or mid C19 wooden portico with hipped leaded roof, moulded wooden cornice with row of pendants, six wooden columns made up of strips of wood, lattice-work panels and round-headed arch with pattern of circles connected to latticework panels by spandrels with fan motifs. As the large scale does not match the band between floors and slightly obscures the central first floor windows it is probably reused from another building. The right side elevation has sash windows and a canted bay to ground floor with horned sashes. The left side elevation has some cement render to the first floor and a cement copy of one of the panels of the Parthenon frieze.
INTERIOR: Interior details which include plaster ceiling roses, wooden window shutters, panelled doors and one of the chimneypieces to the front rooms are of mid C19 date. The absence of openings between the front rooms and rear part of the house suggests a residential conversion of a single storey shallow building rather than a wholly new mid C19 villa. The building also contains a late C19 wooden staircase with square newel posts and square stick balusters, a staircase window with marginal glazing and coloured glass and some six-panelled doors. The north easternmost room on the ground floor has a segmental arch supported on Ionic pilasters and a large late C19 cast iron fireplace with elaborate pilasters.
HISTORY: From map evidence this building occupies the same site as the early C19 orangery to Twickenham Park (renamed St Margaret's House circa 1830) which was later rebuilt by Louis Vulliamy for the second Earl of Kilmorey. The orangery is shown as a cruciform shape on an estate plan attached to sales particulars of 1817 and a plan of 1852 where the building is named "Orangery". At that date the building appears to be a subsidiary building to St Margaret's rather than a separate house. By the time of the 1865 estate map it appears to have been separately fenced off from other buildings. On the 1894-6 O S map the building is called "The Orangery" but has lost its characteristic cruciform shape and is shown square on plan with a projecting porch. By the 1935 O S map the building has acquired an extension to the west, stylistically likely to be late C19.

Unusual hybrid of mid C19 large Italianate villa incorporating remains of an early C19 orangery from Twickenhan Park.

[Keane William, "The Beauties of Middlesex, 1850. Cherry, Bridget and Nikolaus Pevsner, "The Buildings of England" London 3: North West 1991 p436.]

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

500827

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991), 43
Keane, W, The Beauties of Middlesex, (1850)

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.