Marlay House

Detached single-bay (three-bay deep) single-storey gable-fronted gate lodge with half-dormer attic, extant 1937, on a rectangular plan. Renovated. Pitched (gable-fronted) slate roof including gablets to window openings to half-dormer attic, terracotta ridge tiles centred on paired fine roughcast octagonal central chimney stacks on chamfered cushion course on slate hung base having shallow capping, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on slightly overhanging eaves having paired timber consoles. Rendered, ruled and lined walls (ground floor) with cut-granite stringcourse; roughcast surface finish (half-dormer attic); roughcast surface finish (remainder) on cut-granite chamfered plinth. Square-headed central door opening in square-headed recess with cut-granite step threshold, and concealed dressings with hood moulding framing timber boarded door. Square-headed flanking window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings with hood moulding framing replacement casement windows. Square-headed window opening (gable) with cut-granite sill, and concealed dressings with hood moulding framing replacement casement window. Square-headed window openings (remainder) with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings with hood mouldings framing replacement casement windows. Set back from line of road at entrance to grounds of Marlay House with looped wrought iron railings to perimeter centred on looped wrought iron gates.

A gate lodge illustrating the continued development or "improvement" of the estate in the early twentieth century with the architectural value of the composition, 'a commodious example of the newfangled picturesque style embraced by landowners' (Dean 2016, 128), suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form; and the coupled timber work embellishing the roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original or replicated fabric, thus upholding the character or integrity of a gate lodge forming part of a self-contained group alongside an adjacent gateway (see 60220021) with the resulting ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a suburban street scene.