Chinese Temple and Attached Access Tunnel, Chinese Garden

The Chinese Temple and attached access tunnel, located in the Chinese Garden at Biddulph Grange, was built between 1848 and 1860 by John Bateman. This ornamental garden building features painted blue, red, and white timber, along with painted and rendered masonry. It consists of a single-cell temple with a retaining screen wall. The temple, situated to the right, has a two-tiered pagoda roof with upturned eaves, supported by fretwork and spandrels on the masonry plinth. On the left, the screen wall, which is approximately 4 meters long and 1.5 meters high, displays painted low-relief Chinese patterns in render and conceals an access tunnel that cuts through the embankment forming the boundary of the entire Chinese Garden. Bateman designed the temple to serve as the entrance and centerpiece for the walk around the Chinese Garden, which is a small area filled with landscape features set within mounds made of large imported local boulders. At the time of the last survey in September 1984, the structure was noted to be semi-derelict.