Summerlands Lodge

Summary

Former preparatory school for boys, 1906 in Wrenaissance style; extended 1960s or 70s (the extensions are not of special interest and are not included in the listing).

Reasons for Designation

Summerlands Lodge is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural: an imposing well-articulated building of 13 bays in good quality brickwork with terracotta and stone details.
* Interiors: good quality joinery, including panelling, well staircase with gallery, doorcases, wood and glazed screens and stained glass staircase window.
* Intactness: 1906 exteriors unaltered, the interior retains original features except for fireplaces.

History

Summerlands Lodge was erected as a purpose-built preparatory school in 1906 and its original name was Doon House. The architect is not at present known. Doon House School was founded in 1886 by George Reece and John Campbell, moved to larger existing premises called Doon House on an adjacent site to this one in 1891 but by 1902 the school had again outgrown its premises. As a result the founders decided to build a larger purpose-built school immediately to the west. The foundation stone was laid on March 29 1906 by Mrs CHW Reece and the building took the name Doon House from the earlier adjoining building. The school remained in these premises until it was evacuated to Herefordshire in 1940.

During the Second World War the property was occupied by officers from RAF Manston. After the war the school did not return to Westgate-on-Sea and in 1946 it was bought by the Royal British Legion as a nursing and convalescent home and renamed Maurice Lodge. Later it became the head office for a construction company and in the mid-1980s a nursing home called Summerlands Lodge.

The building does not appear on the 1907 third edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey map but is shown on the fourth edition of 1936 with a roughly H-shaped plan. The south wings were extended in the 1960s or 1970s; these extensions are not of special interest and, thus, are not included in the listing.

Details

MATERIALS: built of brown brick in Flemish bond with rubbed red brick dressings, rendered pilasters and a wooden cornice. The tiled mansard roof has moulded brick chimneystacks and a central square wooden belvedere with octagonal cupola. Windows are mainly 12-pane sash windows.

PLAN: roughly E-plan building of two-storeys and attics, aligned north-west to south-east.

EXTERIOR: the entrance front (facing north-west) is symmetrical, of 13-bays and the central and two end bays project. The central bay has a projecting pediment with wooden modillion cornice and oculus with enriched rubbed brick moulding. The first floor staircase window is a wooden mullioned and transomed casement with four stained glass panels in the transoms. The end pilasters have swags to the capitals and below are lion's heads and floral drops. The doorcase is of stone with a curved pediment with a shield incorporating the date 1906, half-columns and wooden double doors. There are flanking windows with carved stone aprons, the left window apron incorporating the foundation stone laid by Mrs CHW Reece on March 29th 1906. On each side are set back sections of four-bays, each having three gabled dormers with later C20 top-opening casements, a wooden modillion eaves cornice, a brick band between floors and four moulded 12-pane sashes with horns, rubbed brick architraves and carved aprons. The ends project with pediments with wooden modillion cornices, oculi, rendered pilasters and two 12-pane sashes on each floor, the ground floor windows being taller.

The west side elevation has two sash windows and a mid C20 iron fire escape.The east side elevation also has two windows but a four-storey flat-roofed lift tower.

The south or garden front has a nine bay front with the central three bays projecting with a second floor pediment above and a large curved bay on the ground floor. The three-bays on either side each have a triple flat-roofed dormer, a gabled dormer and three sash windows below. The south-east corner has a splayed wooden entrance porch. The south-east wing has four original bays before the 1960s/70s two-storey addition to the south clad in brick and aggregate. The south-west wing is similar and also has a 1960s/70s two-storey wing to the south (these extensions are not of special interest, and are not included in the listing).

INTERIOR: The central entrance leads into a vestibule with six-panelled double doors, each with three glazed panels with leaded lights, leading into a two-storey staircase hall. The ground floor has painted panelling to plate-shelf height, a moulded wooden cornice and two round-headed arches leading to the corridors on either side. The fireplace is missing. The well staircase has a gallery at first floor level and painted turned balusters and square moulded newel posts. The wall panelling continues at first floor level. The stained glass panels at the top of the staircase window depict the coats of arms of Hertford and University College, Oxford (the colleges of the two founders of Doon House School) and two coats of arms with school mottoes 'FIDE ET LABORE' and 'MELIORA SEQUIA'. Both the ground and first floor rooms and corridors retain original doorcases with five-panelled doors, moulded cornices and skirting boards. Corridors retain wood and glazed screens and rooms retain window architraves. At the eastern corner is a smaller well staircase with moulded balusters and square newel posts. Part way along the western ground floor corridor is a further small staircase with stick balusters and turned newel posts.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Newman, J, The Buildings of England: Kent: North East and East, (1983), 493

End of official list entry

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