Bridge House, Ambleside

Bridge House spans Stock Beck in Ambleside, at the heart of the English Lake District. It is one of the most recognisable and photographed buildings in Britain. The house was built at the end of the 1600s by the Braithwaite family from nearby Ambleside Hall, its position over the beck was probably to make it exempt from land tax payments.

The house has just two rooms, one at ground floor and one at first, each is approximately 3 square metres in area and has only an external door, so you have to leave the building and use the external steps to go up or down. It has had many uses, originally it was probably built to store apples, then a counting house, a tearoom, a carpenter's workshop, and a home for the Rigg family who raised six children there!

In 1927, it was bought by a group of local residents, led by members of the Wordsworth, Collingwood and Rawnsley families. They made some repairs before giving it to the National Trust, who first opened it to the public in 1956. It has been closed since 2020, but plans are in place to hopefully open it to visitors again soon.

This LEGO model was much more difficult to design and build than I expected, particularly as the building has so many characterful details packed into a very small space making it a challenge to keep everything included but all still in faithful proportions. The brick count was also difficult to hit, in the end I had to remove some texture and detail from the landscaping under the bridge and some ivy on the walls to stay under 3000.

The model was built and rendered in Brickworks Studio, it measures 30x40cm on plan and is 46 cm high, it weighs 3 kg and contains 2998 bricks.

Hope you like it!