The Orchard

Detached three-bay single-storey gate lodge with dormer attic, built 1911, on a square plan centred on single-bay single-storey lean-to advanced open porch. Pyramidal terracotta tile roof centred on "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed flat roofs to window openings to dormer attic, terracotta ridge tiles with red brick English Garden Wall bond chimney stack to apex having "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed cornice capping supporting terracotta tapered pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on exposed timber rafters retaining cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls on red brick header bond chamfered cushion course on red brick English Garden Wall bond base. Square-headed central door opening. Square-headed flanking window openings with timber surrounds framing timber casement windows having square glazing bars. Set back from line of road at entrance to grounds of The Orchard.

A gate lodge erected to a design by Batchelor and Hicks (formed 1905) of Merrion Square, Dublin (DIA), contributing positively to the group and setting values of the The Orchard estate with the architectural value of the composition, one interpretable as a reduction of the eponymous house described as 'one of the finest villa residences in Bray district…completed by J. and W. Stewart contractors in red brick and cut stone' (Irish Builder 9th December 1911, 245), suggested by such attributes as the compact square plan form centred on a canopied doorcase; and the high pitched pyramidal roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, thus upholding the character or integrity of a gate lodge making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan street scene.