Two Entrance Lodges: Queens Park Victoria Avenue Crewe

These lodges and gates form the principal entrance to the park which was opened last year by HRH the Duke of Cambridge and presented by the London and North Western Railway Company to the Borough of Crewe as a Jubilee gift and also in commemoration of the opening of the railway at Crewe, which by a co-incidence took place in the same year as the accession of her Majesty. The park contains about 40 acres and a large amount has been spent in forming roads, boundary fencing, ornamental waters and planting; besides which there has been provided a large tea pavilion, band stand and the lodges etc which we illustrate. The clock tower shown in the drawing was subscribed for and presented by the workmen in the employ of the railway company. The whole of the work was carried out under the direct supervision of Mr F W Webb, the chief engineer of the Company, to whom with the co-operation of the Chairman, Sir Richard Moon and the other directors, Crewe is indebted for the successful completion of the park as it now stands. [Builder 19 October 1889 Page 278]

The lodges are from my design, the outside walling being of stone and the timber framing of picked English oak, the roofs being covered with Staffordshire tiles. JOHN BROOKE

Built between 1887 ‑ 1888; not perfectly symmetrical, as the design of the West Lodge incorporates a Bell Tower. An inscribed bessummer at the first floor level of the West Lodge commemorates the opening of Victoria Avenue by the Commander‑in‑Chief H.R.H. The Duke of Cambridge while the inscription at first floor level of the East Lodge commemorates the Jubilee of Queen Victoria and the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the Grand Junction Railway. Decoration includes a spider, its web and a tree and a spider, design puns on Francis William Webb. A painting of a bat, moon and tree, in yellow and green is another pun, this time on Sir Richard Moon, Bart., Chairman of the LNWR Company. The red sandstone used for both lodges came from the railway cuttings that take the line to Lime Street Station, Liverpool.

Reference    Builder 19 October 1889 Page 278 and illustration by J Langham
Reference    Pevsner: Cheshire