The Temple is a Grade II* listed building in the Central Bedfordshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 16 January 1952. A Georgian Garden building.
The Temple
- WRENN ID
- roaming-rafter-merlin
- Grade
- II*
- Local Planning Authority
- Central Bedfordshire
- Constituency
- North Bedfordshire MP: Richard Fuller (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 16 January 1952
- Type
- Garden building
- Period
- Georgian
- Address
- The Temple, Southill
- OS grid reference
- TL 144 431
- Coordinates
- 52.07516, -0.33085
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Temple, also known as the Fishing Temple, is a garden building dating from around 1800, designed by Henry Holland for Samuel Whitbread II as part of the remodelling of Southill Park. It features light mottled brick construction, with ashlar and stucco elements, and slate roofs. The structure is a small rectangular Tuscan temple, flanked by screen walls to the west and east, with a small cottage attached to the west end. The temple is located on the north side of the lake, north of and in view of Southill Park house.
On the north elevation, the temple has a tetrastyle pedimented port-cochere, with four pilasters on the cella wall and double doors in the central bay. It is flanked by round-headed archways, with the screen walls featuring blind arcading in matching proportions. The screen walls end in round-headed carriage arches aligned with the porte-cochere. The south elevation also has a tetrastyle pedimented portico with four pilasters on the cella wall, and French windows in each of the three bays, with plain screen walls.
A single-storey L-plan cottage projects from the left-hand wall of the temple. This cottage is rather plain and features cast iron lattice casements. Inside the temple, the original plasterwork includes Corinthian pilasters and an ornate ceiling. The temple once housed two marble statues.
Local climate
The Temple sits in one of the driest parts of the UK, with an average of 690 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 96% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 87% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 56% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 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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- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
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