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© Mr Duncan Ferguson

IoE Number: 473328
Location: ST MICHAELS LODGE, TRAFALGAR ROAD
  PLYMOUTH, PLYMOUTH, DEVON
Photographer: Mr Duncan Ferguson
Date Photographed: 30 August 2002
Date listed: 01 May 1975
Date of last amendment: 09 November 1998
Grade II*

PLYMOUTH SX4555 DEVONPORT ROAD, Stoke 740-1/41/652 (West side) 01/05/75 No.192 St Michael's Lodge and rear basement court railings (Formerly Listed as: TRAFALGAR ROAD, Devonport St Michael's Lodge) GV II* Large detached villa. 1827 by John Foulston. Stucco and render replacing stucco; slatehanging to most of rear; roof hidden behind parapet with heavy moulded cornice; rendered stacks over the cross walls. Neo-Classical style. PLAN: double-depth plan with 3 rooms at the front and central stair hall behind central room approached by entrance hall behind right-hand room. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys over basement; symmetrical 1:3:1-window front with central windows to a bowed projection. Mostly original hornless sashes with glazing bars (all elevations), the ground-floor sashes taller and those to left and right as tripartite windows with blind sidelights, the lights divided by pilasters under moulded hoods on consoles; 1st-floor windows above, within moulded eared architraves. Other stucco detail includes plinth and tall entablature over giant pilasters flanking the bays but there used to be more elaborate detail as shown on old photographs. Right-hand return is a symmetrical 3-window entrance front with eared window openings, also to ground floor and with end pilasters under a similar entablature, a theme which continues for 1 bay of the right-hand return (rear) elevation; large central porch with glazed tripartite doorway under a keyed segmental arch; panelled pilaster under string to left and right and moulded entablature surmounted by a squat pediment flanked by large acroteria returned as parapet to sides. Rear is a 6-window range with blind windows to left-hand bay and tall round-arched stair window with fanlight head to 3rd bay from left, the right-hand bay presumed to be a slightly later addition. INTERIOR: survives largely complete and has some fine features including: vaulted vestibule on 4 Doric columns; modillion ceiling cornice to hall; open-well staircase with open string, and mahogany handrail with scrolled newel on stick balusters; moulded and carved ceiling cornices to ground-floor rooms with trailing bands and egg-and-dart, and anthemion to the kitchen; moulded ceiling cornices to 1st-floor rooms where inspected and panelled doors with stepped architraves. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: simple original wrought-iron railings with arrow-head finials to basement court walls at rear. HISTORY: designed as part of a group with the former St Michael's Terrace which was the finest terrace of houses in Plymouth, demolished following a period of neglect in the 1970s. In a national context, this survives as an outstanding example of an early C19 architect-designed villa in the Greek revival style. St Michael's lodge was used as a school between 1883 and 1970, first as a boarding and day school for girls and later as a mixed preparatory school. It was the oldest private school in Plymouth. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-: 673).