The Rotunda In The Black Fen Pleasure Ground

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.