Building record WBG 132 - The Captain's Lodge, 95 Throughfare

Grade-II listed late-Georgian brick townhouse. The building extends to just 7.5 m (25 ft) in length but is crowded with stone embellishment in a manner that contrasts sharply with the understated elegance usually seen elsewhere: its ostentatious central porch is supported by columns with finely carved Corinthian capitals; its sash windows boast shaped hoods and moulded jambs, and there is evidence of a projecting modillion cornice with moulded brackets that has since been removed. A first-floor balcony with a rare original wrought iron balustrade survives at the left-hand gable but is now obstructed by an Art Deco former garage of circa 1930 that belonged to the house until it was
sold separately in 1984. The listing description suggests that the porch was added by a stonemason who is known to have occupied the house in the late-19th century, but in fact it was almost certainly built with the rest of the structure in circa 1810-20 by its original owner James Smyth – a ‘stone and marble mason’ recorded in Pigot’s Directory for 1830 who died in 1855. The yard was described as a ‘stone yard’ in the tithe survey of 1838, and lay on the site of the former garage allowing operations to be overlooked from the first-floor balcony. Early-19th century maps show the house with a rear wing on the site of the existing kitchen and staircase, creating an L-shaped outline, but this was demolished around 1870 when a new two-storied lean-to extension was added to the back wall. The walls of the Georgian house were heightened by five courses and its roof rebuilt to generate sufficient headroom on the lean-to’s upper storey. The Victorian extension has been much altered, with a new window, staircase and rear porch, and the original back door of its kitchen has been blocked and converted into a window. This door originally opened into a narrow lean-to shed that was linked to a larger one containing a chimney that still survives in the north-western corner of the enclosed yard. Both sheds were subsequently rebuilt and finally demolished leaving the scars of two successive lean-tos on the kitchen wall. The Georgian front rooms retain a number of original moulded door surrounds but the building’s considerable historic significance does not extend to its 19th century addition (S1).