Description

RALPH ALLEN DRIVE
656-1/56/1368 (North West side)
12/06/50
Lower Lodge, with walls,
railings and piers
(Formerly Listed as:
RALPH ALLEN DRIVE
Porter's Lodge)

II

Entrance lodge to Prior Park. c1740 by John Wood the Elder.
MATERIALS: Fine limestone ashlar, stone slate roof.
PLAN: Small single depth gabled block, but with lower added single bay.
EXTERIOR: Three storeys. Entrance front has two small oculi above fine Palladian window with radial bars to centre light, with entablature, plain architrave and keystone to plain pilasters, above plain apron. Ground floor treated as a 'Rustick' or basement with small arched six-pane lights with keystone and central elliptical arch to six-panel door, with a full width impost band, returned to jambs.
Rusticated quoins, channelled pilasters, plinth, first floor band, moulded cornice, returned to pilasters, copings to kneelers, and ashlar stack each end. East side elevation to Church Street has a small arched window, part-concealed by later extension, with heavy keystone and imposts, at first floor level. Rear elevation sports two oval lights to first floor. Single bay block to left has arched four-pane window above an elliptical arched two-light casement; comes to acute angle at rear. Front to Ralph Allen Drive has eight-pane arched light with impost band and keystone to first floor, with a larger version to second floor above and smaller version to ground floor. Rear wall in coursed rubble, with two oculi above ground floor lean-to range, and with stone eaves band to concealed gutter. Rear of wing has twelve-pane at each level, and corner stack.
INTERIOR: Not inspected.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Across front of lodge, swept in semicircle, ashlar wall with stepped saddle-back coping carrying short spikes, opposite entrance pair of square piers with flat pyramidal cappings, with cast iron gate with dog-bars. Wall stops to facade at north end, and to large pier with pyramidal capping to south, beyond which length of railing to higher return wall.
HISTORY: The lodge was at the north end of the main carriage drive to Prior Park (qv), and is first shown on the Thorp Map of 1742.
SOURCE: Gillian Clarke, `Prior Park. A Compleat Landscape¿ (Bath 1987), 40.

Listing NGR: ST7582763752

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26673666

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)