The Ice House And Ha-Ha Wall At Bromley Palace Park

THE ICE HOUSE AND HA-HA WALL AT BROMLEY PALACE PARK

This is a brick ice house with an attached summerhouse, accompanied by a separate ha-ha wall, situated in the grounds of Bromley Palace Park. The ice house has a probable late 18th-century core, which was modified in the later 19th century when the summerhouse was added. The ha-ha wall dates from the later 19th century, though it probably follows the line of an earlier late 18th-century ha-ha.

ICE HOUSE AND SUMMERHOUSE

The exterior of the ice house is constructed of red handmade bricks in Flemish bond, while the interior walls are of English bond with stretcher bond applied to the vaulted roof. The ice house roof is covered in bitumen, and the summerhouse roof is tiled.

The building has a rectangular plan, originally comprising two divided chambers, with the summerhouse attached to the south. The south or entrance front presents a tall blank wall with a small gable at the centre and a brick dogtooth cornice. On the left side is a pointed arched blocked opening with a stone cill. A brick garden shelter, also with a deep plinth and tiled roof, is attached to the centre; the bricks here are fractionally larger than those of the ice house. The gable front facing south is rendered and is supported on a central wooden chamfered post, with a wooden door on the west return.

The east and west sides of the ice house are built into an earthen bank and display a similar dogtooth cornice, which ends about one or two feet from the south end before being replaced by a stepped parapet for the remainder of these sides. The east side contains a 20th-century pointed arched opening, inserted when the building was adapted to serve as a canoe store.

The north elevation has only a low brick wall with two charging holes with curved sides, used for shovelling ice in from the lake. Above this, the curved bitumen-covered roof of the ice house is visible.

Access to the interior is through an angled entrance with a cambered head. The interior features a vaulted roof and was originally divided into two rectangular chambers by a central division, which was removed in the 20th century. The western chamber measures 12 feet long by 9 feet 4 inches wide, and the eastern chamber is 11 feet long by 9 feet 4 inches wide. The walls are constructed in English bond and the roof in stretcher bond, with painting to the western chamber and rendering to the eastern chamber. Recent exterior repairs have revealed a cavity between the exterior and interior brick walls. The floor was concreted in the 20th century.

HA-HA WALL

The ha-ha wall is approximately three feet high and constructed of yellow burr bricks with occasional tiles on edge. It extends on the western side almost to a 1960s student accommodation block that was later converted into offices, and on the eastern side terminates about 30 to 40 feet east of the ice house and summerhouse. The main body of the wall is formed of blocks of bricks orientated vertically and horizontally in a basketweave pattern. The top features a course of bricks on edge with a further course of headers immediately below.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The ice house and summerhouse, together with the ha-ha wall, are situated in the grounds of the former Bishop of Rochester's Palace in Bromley. The medieval palace was demolished and replaced by a classical building in 1776. In 1845, the Diocese of Rochester sold the palace and its estate to Mr Coles Child, who carried out improvements to the main house in the 1860s by R Norman Shaw, who also designed some estate cottages and a bailiff's cottage for him. Mr Coles Child further improved the grounds by constructing Pulhamite landscape features and a folly. Ernest Newton worked on the estate in 1902 and 1920.

On the 1861 Ordnance Survey map, the ice house is not specifically marked, but there is a kinked section in a pathway surrounding the lake, suggesting that the path avoided a building in the position of the present ice house; this pathway still exists, running to the north of the present structure. The ha-ha wall is clearly shown on this map, running roughly parallel to the southern end of the lake. On the 1898 Ordnance Survey map, the present outline of the ice house is marked as "Summer House" and includes the projecting gabled shelter on the south side. No change in the mapping of the ha-ha wall appears between the 1861 and 1898 editions.

In 1930, the Coles Child family ceased to own the estate, and it became first a teacher training college, called Stockwell College, and later Bromley Civic Centre. During the Stockwell College period, the ice house was converted into a canoe store. In 1975, the building was inspected by Geoffrey G Cooke, who described it and provided measured drawings.