MEM22335 - The Gables (35) and Southcliffe (34) , Lee Road, Lynton (Building)

Pair of semi-detached hotels. c1900. Rubble with brick dressings, slate roof. A near-symmetrical pair, strongly modelled in a late Picturesque style. 2 storeys and attic, each 2 windows, but the left half (Gable Lodge) has a small extra bay, set back to the left, with a half-hipped roof to deep eaves over a single sash and a wide door in 3 narrow vertical glazed panels and a plain transom light in a very flat pointed brick arch with brick dripcourse to dropped ends. To the right is a wide gable with a narrow glazed door to a balcony with balustrade and gable framing with trefoil openings in the spandrels, above a shallow square bay with tripartite sash and very narrow return lights, above a similar ground-floor bay under a steep hipped slate roof, the bay with stone corner mullions. This is all brought forward from the main transverse roof with a gabled dormer with 4-pane sash and deep eaves, above a pair of glazed doors under transom lights with geometrical glazing bars, opening to a balcony with open splat balusters, and a similar door with transom light assembly to the ground floor. On the return wall to the gabled unit is a narrow light towards the balcony. The return wall to the left of the porch extension includes a large gabled sash dormer abov a large tripartite sash. The adjoining Southcliffe is identical in the set-back centre, including the continued balustrade, but has a pyramidal gable with small dormer above a deep balcony, the splat rail on 3 facets, and 2 slender cast-iron columns on brick pedestals; in the main wall-plane is a wide 3-light French door and transom light opening. The ground floor has narrow 4-pane sashes on 3 facets, and a door under the balcony. On the right return wall is an entrance door in brick dressings and a deep reveal, and a large gabled dormer with sash. A prominent ridge stack at the party wall, and a smaller stack to Gable Lodge. The backs of the properties are rendered, with wide gables, and there is a slate-hung stack in the central valley. Gable Lodge retains plain sashes, but windows to Southcliffe are all late C20 replacements. The dormers and gables have terracotta finials. INTERIORS not inspected. This pair of buildings is a characteristic well-detailed and articulated example of late Victorian villa design, and is the best and the earliest in the row developed here in Lee Road. [1] Of the large group of hotels and guest houses in Lee Road, only Southcliffe (no. 34) and Gable Lodge (no. 35) are listed, and form a nearly identical semi-detached pair dating from c.1900 and are based on a late Victorian Picturesque style, half-hipped and pyramidal gables with deep eaves. They are built of stone rubble with brick dressings and slate roofs. There is considerable frontage ornament, including timber balustrading, sash windows, some tripartite, and entrance doors with geometrical glazing bars. They are considered to be “a characteristic well detailed and articulated example of late Victorian villa design, and is the best and the earliest in the row developed here in Lee Road.” [2] N.B. These are not the earliest villas on the street. They do not appear on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map, whereas 'Gordon Villas', now Nos 30 and 31 Lee Road (MEM22371), do. [3,4] The buildings were visited in April 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. They received a BAR score of 6. [5] The villas are shown as a semidetached pair on the 2022 MasterMap data. [6] The villas along the north side of Lee Road form a long row of frontages set back behind short front gardens. All are closely spaced and within long rectangular plots. The first built, now known as Victoria Lodge (MEM22371), stood in isolation until its neighbours were constructed some 20 years later around 1900. [7] The building was assessed as part of the 2018-19 rapid condition survey of Exmoor’s Listed Buildings, receiving a BAR score of 6. [8]