Grosvenor Park Lodge, Chester
Park-keeper's lodge, now park office. By John Douglas, 1865-7, at the expense of the second Marquis of Westminster. For Chester City Council. Tooled squared snecked red sandstone rubble, timber frame with plaster panels and red-brown tile roofs. High Gothic moving towards Vernacular Revival. 2 storeys, T-shaped with single-storey office wing; the lower storey is stone, the upper storey framed. The east front has ornate timber-framed gabled porch to door of 2 boarded panels on wrought-iron hinges; a 2-light mullioned casement with stiff-leaf colonnettes, left; a canted bay window projecting front gable, right. Upper storey on corbel-table has a small 6-pane casement above porch, a 12-pane casement in hipped dormer left and a 20-pane cross-window in front gable right; four crowned figures with armorial shields; small framing; jettied gable with curved braces; shaped and carved bargeboards.
John Douglas was an English architect who designed over 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales and Northwest England. He was articled to E. G. Paley in Lancaster and practised throughout his career from an office in Chester. Initially he ran the practice on his own, but later worked in partnerships with two of his former assistants. A major influence in his work was the rise of interest in vernacular architecture, in particular black-and-white revival using half-timbering. One characteristic feature of Douglas's work is the inclusion of dormer windows rising through the eaves and surmounted by hipped roofs.
Grosvenor Park Lodge, Chester
Park-keeper's lodge, now park office. By John Douglas, 1865-7, at the expense of the second Marquis of Westminster. For Chester City Council. Tooled squared snecked red sandstone rubble, timber frame with plaster panels and red-brown tile roofs. High Gothic moving towards Vernacular Revival. 2 storeys, T-shaped with single-storey office wing; the lower storey is stone, the upper storey framed. The east front has ornate timber-framed gabled porch to door of 2 boarded panels on wrought-iron hinges; a 2-light mullioned casement with stiff-leaf colonnettes, left; a canted bay window projecting front gable, right. Upper storey on corbel-table has a small 6-pane casement above porch, a 12-pane casement in hipped dormer left and a 20-pane cross-window in front gable right; four crowned figures with armorial shields; small framing; jettied gable with curved braces; shaped and carved bargeboards.
John Douglas was an English architect who designed over 500 buildings in Cheshire, North Wales and Northwest England. He was articled to E. G. Paley in Lancaster and practised throughout his career from an office in Chester. Initially he ran the practice on his own, but later worked in partnerships with two of his former assistants. A major influence in his work was the rise of interest in vernacular architecture, in particular black-and-white revival using half-timbering. One characteristic feature of Douglas's work is the inclusion of dormer windows rising through the eaves and surmounted by hipped roofs.