The Rotunda in the Black Fen Pleasure Ground is a Grade I listed building in the Leeds local planning authority area, England. First listed on 1 May 1960. A Early C18 Garden temple.
The Rotunda in the Black Fen Pleasure Ground
- WRENN ID
- tall-spindle-moth
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Leeds
- Constituency
- Wetherby and Easingwold MP: Sir Alec Shelbrooke (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 1 May 1960
- Type
- Garden temple
- Period
- Early C18
- Address
- The Rotunda in the Black Fen Pleasure Ground, Barwick in Elmet and Scholes
- OS grid reference
- SE 413 408
- Coordinates
- 53.86211, -1.37261
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Rotunda in the Black Fen Pleasure Ground is a garden temple built in the mid-18th century, possibly designed by James Paine for George Fox-Lane, the 2nd Lord Bingley. Constructed from sandstone ashlar, this circular Ionic temple features a three-step podium and a colonnade of 16 unfluted Roman Ionic columns that support an entablature, pulvinated frieze, and a heavily modillioned cornice. The inner drum has a rusticated base and a sill band decorated with a Greek Key ornament. There are doorways to the north-west, facing the house, and to the south-east, facing an obelisk down a tree-lined avenue. These doorways have architraves, pulvinated friezes, and casement moulded cornices, flanked by blocked windows with architraves. A moulded cornice leads to a ribbed vaulted ceiling supported by the columns. The central drum rises higher than the outer circle and features a cornice, blocking course, and a lead dome, showcasing fine detailing.
The Rotunda is part of a formal early 18th-century garden laid out according to a plan created between 1725 and 1728 by John Wood for Robert Benson, the 1st Lord Bingley. Located about a mile from Bramham Park, the Black Fen Pleasure Ground is organized with alleys and vistas radiating from round points. From the Rotunda, six avenues extend outward, connecting to the obelisk and the Temple of Leod Lud, from which additional avenues fan out and intersect with others.
Local climate
The Rotunda in the Black Fen Pleasure Ground receives an average of 760 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 65% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 91% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 40 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 78% of listed buildings. Of these, 20 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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