Farnborough Hall The Oval Pavilion

Farnborough Hall's Oval Pavilion is a garden pavilion built around 1750, likely designed by Sanderson Miller and constructed by William Hiorns for William Holbech, with plaster work probably by William Perritt. The pavilion is made of ironstone ashlar with limestone ashlar dressings and features a lead domed roof. It has an oval plan and is two storeys high. The loggia on the ground floor is supported by four Tuscan columns on pedestals, with two columns set in antis, and is adorned with an entablature and trilymph frieze. The first floor showcases Ionic pilasters with a string course between the pedestals, and the entablatures project over the columns and pilasters. The front and sides have curved eight-pane sash windows with thick glazing bars and moulded stone surrounds. At the rear, there is an external curving stone staircase with an iron handrail, leading to a part-glazed six-panelled door framed by a moulded architrave. Inside, the loggia features plasterwork with an egg and dart cornice, a moulded oval stone table, and a wooden seat. The first floor, known as the 'Prospect Room', boasts fine Rococo plasterwork between the windows and in the dome, a Vitruvian scroll dado rail, and an elaborately moulded cornice. The dome has a central oval with four large and four small panels, and the room has an ornamental wooden floor. The pavilion is a significant element of the Terrace Walk, which is likely designed by Miller, representing a major example of mid-18th century landscape design.