The Watertower

TF 72 NE 6/24

HOUGHTON HOUGHTON PARK The Watertower

- I

Watertower, originally called the Waterhouse, designed before 1733, but not marked in block plan in Isaac Ware Plans, Elevations and Sections of Houghton (1735). Henry Lord Herbert, afterwards 9th Earl of Pembroke, architect. Lime washed stucco render and cement render on brick, Whitby stone dressings, slated roof. 2 storeys, rectangular on plan with symmetrical north-south and east west facades. Palladian style. North and south facades have 3 recessed blank arches with keystone heads, raised and chamfered rustication. Ground and first floor plinths and arch level platbands to all facades. First floor has open Tuscan Doric portico with stuccoed pilasters returned round angles, 2 inner stone pilasters and 2 columns with stone balustrade in between. Open balcony has 4 stucco artae and central pedimented door. Cement rendered entablature and 4 pediments to 4 faces. East and west facades have single central ground floor keystone arched headed doorway with 6 panel raised and fielded door with arched overlight, raised and chamfered rustication. First floor has clasping angle stucco pilasters with stone bases and capitals. Stone Venetian window with blank outer and open arched central bay, balustraded base. North and south facades quote that of Colen Campbell's Lord Herbert's villa on Whitehall (1724), east and west the return fronts of the wings of Campbell's Burlington House, Piccadilly (1718-1719). Lord Pembroke's only documented work. 2 drawings labelled, perhaps by Horace Walpole, "the water-house in the Park, designed by Henry Lord Herbert, afterwards Earl of Pembroke" now in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. See John Harris "The Waterhouse at Houghton" in Burlington Magazine III (i) 1969 pp. 300-301.

Listing NGR: TF7898829466