Canons Park Garden Temple

2021

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Canons Park is a registered Grade II Historic Landscape and contains several listed buildings including The Garden Temple. These listings reflect the signi­ficance of the park as part of the remains of one of the grandest homes and gardens of 18th Century England, developed by the Duke of Chandos. 

The Temple is a classical garden building that was built between 1800 and 1838 and that has altered in form over the years. It once incor­porated a heated, glass Palm House. A network of paths connected the House and Temple, remnants of which can be found in the park.

The Garden Temple was listed in 1983 due to its special archi­tec­tural or historic interest. The building is on the English Heritage Buildings at Risk register.

606C Temple Before After

South Facade Alcoves Before and After Works

When we became involved, the Garden Temple had suffered from vandalism and other anti-social behaviour. This had resulted in smoke and graffiti damage, largely to the rear of the building. Theft of roof flashings had also resulted in loss of slate roof tiles and ingress of water into the temple. In an effort to protect the fabric from further damage, the columns to the rear had been painted at low and midlevel to allow easier maintenance and, ultimately, an anti-scale gated fence was installed to the rear. This damage to the historic fabric was in addition to weathering of the unprotected stonework together with organic growth and urban pollution deposits to the brickwork.

In order to restore and protect this historic feature for future enjoyment, we surveyed the damage and work required to stabilise the fabric and return it to an appearance befitting of it’s value and setting. We oversaw the process of conser­vation of the existing historic brick wing walls with the removal of invasive plant growth and consol­id­ation of the existing brick work, together with the non-corrosive, low pressure, high temperature water cleaning and minor stone repairs to both primary elevations (front and rear).

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The invasive works were limited to a like-for-like replacement of a limestone capital to one of the columns on the North elevation.

Now restored, the Temple and it’s raised paved area can be enjoyed by dog-walkers, photo­graphers, historians and outdoor exercise class enthusiasts alike for many more years to come. 

Client: Harrow Council

Filed to: Heritage, Public and Community

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