XXX—GLOUCESTER HOUSE AND LODGE

The area between Gloucester Gate and the terrace of the same name is occupied by two houses which form one block. The external walls are rendered in stucco, with two porticoes looking west towards the Park. That to the North has two free unfluted Ionic columns (distyle in antis) standing some distance above ground level, their height being that of the ground floor. They support an entablature that extends also across the north front of the building, and (over the portico) a pierced parapet to the balcony above. The ground floor walling on the north front (Plate 52) is divided into three unequal spaces by pilasters, the central or small space being masked by a projecting open porch with its own entablature, and an opening furnished with fluted Doric columns. On the left the wall is pierced by two windows and on the right by one. The upper storey forms an "attic" and at intervals are slight pilasters with capitals of Corinthian form directly beneath the cornice, above which is a parapet, panelled and with fluted piercing. The full architectural treatment is not carried round the eastern face, and its arrest at the northeastern corner is ingeniously contrived. Further to the south fronting the Park, is a larger portico which has four fluted Ionic columns (tetrastyle in antis) rising the height of two storeys and crowned with entablature and pediment. An additional storey seems to have been added at a later date. Each side of the portico is a simple two-storey section with plain pilasters to the ground floor, and at the southern end is a projecting block of two bays, with broad Ionic pilasters with capitals at the first floor level, and plain pilasters above.