Woodbrook

Detached three-bay single-storey gate lodge, extant 1909, on a T-shaped plan centred on single-bay single-storey gabled projecting breakfront. Renovated. Hipped slate roof on a T-shaped plan centred on pitched (gabled) slate roof (breakfront), roll moulded terracotta ridge tiles with abbreviated finials to apexes, paired yellow brick Flemish bond central chimney stacks on buttressed bases having corbelled stepped capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta pots, quatrefoil-perforated timber bargeboards to gable on spandrels on thumbnail beaded corbels with finial now missing, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on exposed timber rafters retaining cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls bellcast over rendered plinth with terracotta tile "diaper work" surface finish to gable. Square-headed window openings originally in tripartite arrangement centred on square-headed window opening originally in quadripartite arrangement with cut-granite chamfered sills, and rendered "bas-relief" surrounds having chamfered reveals framing replacement uPVC casement windows replacing timber casement windows. Set back from line of road at entrance to grounds of Woodbrook.

A gate lodge attributed to Frederick George Hicks (1870-1965) of Dublin (Dean 2016, 173-4) not only contributing positively to the group and setting values of the Woodbrook estate, but also clearly illustrating the continued development or "improvement" of the estate at the turn of the twentieth century with the architectural value of the composition, one showing 'an imaginative Edwardian interpretation of the Picturesque style' (ibid., 173), suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on an expressed breakfront; and the decorative timber work embellishing the roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric: however, the introduction of replacement fittings to most of the openings has not had a beneficial impact on the external expression or integrity of a gate lodge forming part of a neat self-contained group alongside an adjacent gateway (see 60260161) with the resulting ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan street scene.