Fig. 2 A detail from the Chapman and Andre map of 1777 showing the northern lodges and
standings.
entertained the Court of Common Council on an official visit. Sketches and photographs (Plates 14 &
15) show it as a much bigger building than in 1589; it was mainly timber-framed and weather-boarded,
in three parts of different dates, outwardly of the eighteenth or early nineteenth century.11
New Lodge passed into the hands of the Corporation of London under the Epping Forest Act. It
continued to flourish as a place of public resort; there was a dispute with the tenant about the addition
of outbuildings. The main building was not repaired and fell into decay. In 1898 the Epping Forest
Committee demolished it on the plea that it was 'very old and . . . dilapidated'. They saved £150, the
difference between the cost of repairs and of demolition.* Although its historical significance was
well known at the time, they did not even trouble to record it; all that survives is this report:
The workmen informed us that the building did not appear to be more than 150 or 200 years
old, but that some of the oaken timber seemed to be very old and to have been re-mortised
when the house was put up also that many of the old bricks had been chipped and refaced. "
* The cost of builders' wages had gone up about 3-fold since 1725. "
11