Covered Walk at the Pleasaunce

Covered walk at The Pleasaunce, Overstrand, Harbord Road

This covered walk was built between 1897 and 1899 by Sir Edwin Lutyens as part of the larger country house known as The Pleasaunce. It is constructed of roughcast with tile dressings and has a tiled roof, and is L-shaped in plan.

The main range runs north to south and consists of 12 bays. Rough-cast buttresses stand on low brick plinths, with a band of tiles running along the buttresses above which the outer face slopes and is tile hung. The buttresses support wooden lintels. Within the walk, alternate pairs of buttresses support semicircular arches decorated with tile keystones. The detailed tiling and keystones are characteristic examples of Lutyens's careful detailing. The arches themselves are imaginatively designed with reversed arched openings on a smaller diameter above the main arch, creating a glimpse of the roof in the next bay as well as along the walk.

At the northern end of the walk stands an octagonal open pavilion with a low brick wall supporting stone Doric columns and a pyramidal roof whose apex is higher than that of the walk. To the southern end, at right angles to the main range, extends a further range. Its northern wall is solid, leading to a former bakery and laundry, while the southern side is open with similar buttresses and arches between them. The western gable of this range features a semicircular headed archway with a semicircular opening scooped out beneath the eaves, echoing the archway above.

Lutyens described the roof as having "simple sublimity". The long series of arches built in brick with roughcast render and tile dressings is immensely impressive and represents outstanding elemental architecture. The gardens at The Pleasaunce are registered separately by English Heritage at grade II.