Gazebo at the Pleasaunce

Gazebo at The Pleasaunce, Overstrand

A gazebo designed around 1900 by Sir Edwin Lutyens for Lord and Lady Battersea as a writing room for the American poetess the Honourable Emily Lawless. The building is rectangular in plan, two storeys high, constructed of flint with stone and brick dressings, and topped with a hipped pantile roof.

The exterior presents a carefully considered Neo-Georgian design. To the road side stands a fine central stone doorway with a plain cornice on consoles, above which are two sash-like windows with glazing bars and segmental arched heads, set in brick dressings. Flanking the central section are high walls to either side, each ending in a battered pier.

The garden-facing elevation has a central stone doorway with plain cornice at ground level. The first floor features an elaborate concave brick roundel flanked by brick-dressed slit lights. An external stone flight of steps to the right provides access to the first floor. The right-hand gable wall at upper floor level contains a bull's-eye window with brick and stone dressings.

The interior is a highly sophisticated essay in the Early Renaissance style. The single space resembles a miniature chapel, comprising a pair of adjoining domed squares, each with shallow arched embrasures to either side, and terminating in a rose window.

The building was constructed as part of The Pleasaunce, one of the most significant seaside houses of its era, developed from 1897 onwards by Lord and Lady Battersea, who incorporated earlier villas into the main house. Lutyens also designed accompanying structures including stables, cottages, garden features, and an open covered walk on the estate. The house received notable royal visitors, including Queen Alexandra and the Empress of Russia in 1911. The gardens at The Pleasaunce are registered with English Heritage at Grade II.