Description

898/0/10012

HUNTINGDON
PRIORY ROAD
Porter's Lodge at Huntingdon Cemetery

05-MAR-08

GV
II
Cemetery entrance lodge, unoccupied at the time of inspection (October 2007). c.1855 with minor late C20 alterations. Built to the designs of Robert Hutchinson, architect to the Huntingdon Burial Board.

MATERIAL: pale Gault brick with ashlar stone dressings, coped gables with moulded kneelers and a plain red tile roof covering.

PLAN: U-shaped plan with the main frontage facing the access to the cemetery, and single storey service wings enclosing a small rear yard.

EXTERIOR: entrance front of three bays and single storey with attics beneath a deep and steeply-pitched roof. The central doorway has a plain plank door and is enclosed within a prominent gabled timber-framed porch. This has a pointed arched entrance with flanking unglazed lancet lights, and arch spandrels pierced by trefoils. Its steeply pitched roof has barge boards and curved braces to decorate its gabled front. To the right of the entrance is a two-light window with shouldered heads, central mullion and casement lights. Above the window is a shallow relieving arch. To the left of the doorway is a single light window. There is a dog-toothed brick eaves course, and the tall central chimney has battered brickwork to front and rear faces beneath a dentilled capping. The right-hand gable has a canted bay window to the ground floor, a low two-light attic window and a narrow blind light to the gable apex. The left hand gable has a three-light ground floor window, a two-light window above and a blind apex light. A long single-storeyed service wing extends from the rear of the building with a single two-light mullioned window. A short wing with a single light window forms a parallel range on the cemetery side of the small rear yard.

INTERIOR: not inspected.

HISTORY: the cemetery lodge is thought to have been completed in 1855 together with the associated Anglican and Nonconformist chapels complex. The sponsoring Huntingdon Burial Board was established shortly after the passing of the 1852 Burial Acts which enabled public cemeteries to be constructed by publicly-funded Burial Boards. The lodge is known as the Porter's Lodge.

The Porter's Lodge has group value with the Anglican and Nonconformist mortuary chapels complex at Huntingdon Cemetery (q.v.)

The Porter's Lodge at Huntingdon Cemetery is designated Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* The building forms part of the original designs for a cemetery landscape by the architect Robert Hutchinson

* The cemetery building designs date to the same year as the legislation which enabled the development of public cemeteries by Burial Boards.

* The building forms part of the setting of the cemetery chapels. These constitute the focal structure within the cemetery landscape and the lodge had a strong visual and functional relationship with the chapels.

* The lodge was carefully designed so as not to compete with the main building, but to create a dignified and restrained presence at the main entrance to the cemetery.

* The building is little altered and continues to clearly represent the requirements of the original design that the building both marks the entrance to an important new public facility, and enhance the character of the cemetery landscape.

Reasons for Listing

The Porter's Lodge at Huntingdon Cemetery is designated Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* The building forms part of the original designs for a cemetery landscape by the architect Robert Hutchinson

* The cemetery building designs date to the same year as the legislation which enabled the development of public cemeteries by Burial Boards.

* The building forms part of the setting of the cemetery chapels. These constitute the focal structure within the cemetery landscape and the lodge had a strong visual and functional relationship with the chapels.

* The lodge was carefully designed so as not to compete with the main building, but to create a dignified and restrained presence at the main entrance to the cemetery.

* The building is little altered and continues to clearly represent the requirements of the original design that the building both marks the entrance to an important new public facility, and enhance the character of the cemetery landscape.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671653

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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