The Tea House 50 Metres East Of Chinese Temple And Connecting Tunnel To Egyptian Portal

BIDDULPH C.P. BIDDULPH GRANGE SJ 85 NE SJ 8934 5914 7/16 The Tea House 50m east - of Chinese Temple and 20.3.74 connecting tunnel to Egyptian portal

GV II

Ornamental garden building: cottage orné and tunnel connecting to Egyptian portal (q.v.). Dated 1856. Rendered brickwork and some timber framing. Tiled roof with finials and cusped bargeboard; large side stack to right. Two-storey gabled frontage, built into embankment, painted to represent timber framing. 3-light casement window to corbelled first floor flanked by painted date and initialled over "M M". Loggia entrance with timber columns framing central round arch. Cottage also has access from rear at higher embankment level, with elevation in genuine timber framing. Forms termination of perimeter perambulation of garden commenced at Bateman's study. Interior: loggia enters short south arm of cruciform tunnel layout, this axis ends to north in boarded seating apse, east end (still within cottage ground floor) also apsidal contains over-life-sized sculpture of seated baboon; exit to north leads to upper level; the crossing has some mock bamboo-work walls and ceiling panels; the long west arm, which is a genuine tunnel, connects to the Egyptian portal (q.v.), thus continuing the sequential perambulation of the gardens, from the Chinese layout and the pinetum to the Wellingtonia Avenue.

Listing NGR: SJ8934259149