The Watertower

The Watertower, originally known as the Waterhouse, was designed before 1733 by Henry Lord Herbert, who later became the 9th Earl of Pembroke. It is constructed with lime washed stucco render and cement render on brick, featuring Whitby stone dressings and a slated roof. The building is two storeys tall and has a rectangular plan with symmetrical facades on both the north-south and east-west sides, showcasing a Palladian style.

The north and south facades each have three recessed blank arches with keystone heads and raised, chamfered rustication. Both the ground and first floors include plinths and platbands at the arch level. The first floor features an open Tuscan Doric portico with stuccoed pilasters that return around the corners, two inner stone pilasters, and two columns with a stone balustrade in between. An open balcony is present, adorned with four stucco artae and a central pedimented door. The entablature is cement rendered, and there are four pediments on the four faces of the building.

On the east and west facades, there is a single central ground floor doorway with a keystone arch, which contains a six-panel raised and fielded door with an arched overlight, also featuring raised and chamfered rustication. The first floor has clasping angle stucco pilasters with stone bases and capitals, and a stone Venetian window with a blank outer and an open arched central bay, resting on a balustraded base. The design of the north and south facades is influenced by Colen Campbell's Lord Herbert's villa on Whitehall from 1724, while the east and west facades reflect the return fronts of the wings of Campbell's Burlington House in Piccadilly, built between 1718 and 1719.

This structure is Lord Pembroke's only documented work, and there are two drawings, possibly by Horace Walpole, labeled "the water-house in the Park, designed by Henry Lord Herbert, afterwards Earl of Pembroke," which are now held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.