Building record 0937300000 - The Lodge, Rayners Avenue, Loudwater

The Lodge, Rayners Lane was designed as a lodge to Rayners [see CAS 15118 and 06413] by A Vernon, c.1874. A virtuoso mid-Victorian display of yellow stock-brick with a wealth of moulded brick and geometric ornament (B1).
Locally listed. This small attractive building lies at the junction between London Road and Rayners Avenue. It is historically linked to Rayners (later Penn School) in Tylers Green. Rayners was the centre of a large estate which extended to the main London to Oxford road. A private drive was constructed by the owners of the estate, Sir Phillip Rose, to bring him home, up the hill, from the station at Loudwater. The Lodge was constructed at the gate to this drive.
The building was designed by well known local architect, Arthur Vernon, in approximately 1874. It is a virtuoso mid-Victorian display of yellow stock brick, with a wealth of moulded brick and geometric ornament. In terms of architectural features it is far more ornate than the other lodge to Rayners which lies on Penn Road.
The building itself is a compact one, constructed on bands of flint interspersed with yellow London brick, with ornate window and door surrounds, a large porch, and a wealth of detailing in the form of buttresses. Decorative moulded fleur-de-lis banding runs from stringcourse to sill level, with further decorative bands below the eaves. The dormer windows have tile hung gables with decorative eaves detailing. A large elaborately moulded Elizabethan-style chimney of four diagonal stacks dominates the roof.
The building is mentioned in Pevsner and shown on the 1875 OS (B2).
Gatekeeper’s lodge to Rayners House. Built in around 1874 and designed by the architect Arthur Vernon for Sir Philip Rose.
Reasons for Designation:
The Lodge, built around 1874 to the designs of Arthur Vernon, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest: - as a well-designed and well-crafted example of an eye-catching entrance lodge; - for its varied composition and the quality of materials and detailing; - for the survival of the attached porch including an integrated gate pier denoting the building’s historic association with Rayners House.
Group value: - with the Grade II-listed Rayners House and ancillary listed estate buildings, for which the Lodge was originally constructed. (B3).