King John's Hunting Lodge

[king john]

park lodge is a family home and has never been converted into apartments as has been stated by philip g. and hopefully never will be. the 1207 on the gates is the connection between king john and the higher lodge as it was originally called. if chris is accurate with his recollection the dates, 1960's the rathbone family lived in the lodge and so it would have been mrs rathbone showing him around.. the house itself as i have said previously has been extended 3 times in 800 years. there are differing periods within the house and the large fireplace he recalls has a fire back dated 1588 this is in the dining hall <saracen room>.i have one photograph which i think is from the 1930's. which i will post when i get my son to show me how!
it is relatively easy to become a house detective living here.there are so many clues and signs of times gone by. for example in four rooms the ceilings are our floors in the rooms above, there are no voids.all our wiring is surface mounted.
park lodge has never failed to challenge and excite us indeed it has become our personal folly. in a few weeks your very own kev is coming for a guided tour. besides which of course i will keep you posted of our progress.

[PhilipG]

park lodge is a family home and has never been converted into apartments as has been stated by philip g. and hopefully never will be.

Dear King John.

I'm very pleased to hear that Park Lodge hasn't been converted into apartments, but in my defence I have to say that I believed this notice - which is attached to your property - is genuine.
I was always under the impression that "For Sale" signs should only be affixed to the property they refer to.

[king john]

dear Philip, my husband allowed a developer to erect the sign on our fence. the sign actually refers to st. gabriel's convent, which has been converted into apartments. we had forgotten it was there and come tomorrow will ask for it to be removed. it is not illegal to post a sign referring to another building, only if it has been done without permission.
i was looking at your thumbnail attachments. when were you here?

[MissInformed]

park lodge has never failed to challenge and excite us indeed it has become our personal folly. in a few weeks your very own kev is coming for a guided tour. besides which of course i will keep you posted of our progress.

kept that one quiet Kev hehe

[PhilipG]

dear Philip, my husband allowed a developer to erect the sign on our fence. the sign actually refers to st. gabriel's convent, which has been converted into apartments. we had forgotten it was there and come tomorrow will ask for it to be removed. it is not illegal to post a sign referring to another building, only if it has been done without permission.
i was looking at your thumbnail attachments. when were you here?

I live not far away.
I took more photos today.

[Kev]

Folks, I've just got back from an fantastic hour at this gem of a building, I'm on cloud nine to say the least and will post some pics later.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Kev

Excellent news. I am greatly looking forward to seeing the pics.

Chris

[PhilipG]

Hi Kev

Excellent news. I am greatly looking forward to seeing the pics.

Chris

Me too!

[Kev]

I was excited as I walked upto the house. I've driven past this hundreds of times and always wondered what was inside, now was my chance to find out. Paula (member King John), who owns the house with her husband had opened the gates for me.



Lets start outside:

















On the next photograph if you look closely, between the roof and the wall is a feature that dates back to the Norman period, when the roof would have been flat.







Lets go inside:





Here's that fireplace:





Inscription reads - 1588 'EFC'. There's an anchor on it too.















The thickness of this archway is a clue to the age of this part of the house and was where the original door was all those years ago:









Bathroom and toilet:









The bath below can also be found in Speke Hall, obviously not the same one.





Going upstairs - this stair way takes us into the space that can be seen clearly from the outside here:









Look what I found in the corner, an old map of Liverpool, probably original.



The other pics can be found here

The house seemed huge and I couldn't get over how significant this building is to the city of Liverpool, yet it isn't listed.

Paula talked with passion about the Liverpool and the house and their plans. The tough restoration job is being done by Paula and her husband and I'm glad to say that it was purchased by the family just before a developer got their hands on it. If the developers had - I certainly wouldn't have been able to get in.

I can't thank Paula and her family enough for letting little old me inside for a pretty much free wander around, every time I turned a corner, another door was opened for me to look into and every room has a story attached!

Hope you enjoy the pictures people, the place is so special

[Walden]

Brilliant photo's well done - thanks for sharing them

[lindylou]

OMG ! What fabulous photos of a wonderful house. I didn't know anything about the existance of this house before. Thanks so much to Paula and her family for allowing us to see. Thanks Kev for taking the trouble to post all the photies. Brilliant !

[theninesisters]

Fantastic photo's Kev! Spot on!

I was around that location at the weekend! My uncle was brought up in the house that John Brodie (City Engineer) lived - no 28 Ullet Road. And when John Brodie died, his (my uncle) uncle, Reg Arrowsmith, purchased the house and made it in to flats for the family to live in. Reg Arrowsmith for the older generation on here owned lots of motor garages, including the now demolished Cubbin & North site on Ullet Road and Dudlow Motor's in Childwall to name but a few.

[shytalk]

Great pix Kev, thank them for everyone on this forum. It was nice that they shared.

[PhilipG]

Excellent work, Kev.
Thank you King John (Paula).
They're really photos for the archive.
That ceiling is fabulous.

Whereabouts is the oldest part of the house?
Is it well hidden inside subsequent building work, or is it possible to see anything from the outside?

The views of Fritz Spiegl's home are great too.

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Kev

Fabulous photographs, Kev. And thanks to Paula and her husband for graciously allowing our intrepid leader to tour the lodge.

In the matter of the cast iron fireback with what you thought were the initials "EFC 1588" I am fairly sure that it is either "IFC" or "JFC" not "EFC" -- the letter "I" often being rendered with such a nobbly fashion, and the name for James I in Latin being rendered "Iacobus" for "Jacobus" Latin for James on coins of that king. I note that there also seems to be a shield to the left of the date which might be a clue to which family owned the fireback if the heraldic designs can be interpreted.

Chris