Screen walls, terraces, retaining walls, balustrades, garden steps and rotunda to former Canons House, now North London Collegiate School

Screen walls, terraces, retaining walls, balustrades, garden steps and rotunda to former Canons House, now North London Collegiate School

This ensemble of terraced formal gardens dates to about 1912 and was designed by C E Mallows. The gardens are constructed in Portland stone, red brick, coursed stone rubble, stone flags, plaintile and concrete.

Immediately to the south of the house entrance stands a Corinthian screen in Portland stone, with gateways to the garden on each side. A screen wall reached by steps encloses the terrace to the south of and frames the main western approach to the house before opening up to a loggia to the south-west. A broad terrace contained on the south and west by a bastion-like retaining wall wraps around the south and east fronts, descending via steps to the park below, and originally aligned on the southern axis toward the rotunda at the head of the formal gardens.

The Corinthian screen is in three bays with a robust moulded cornice and abuts lower garden walls and entrances to each side. The screen wall comprises bands of red brick with a stone balustraded parapet. The gateways are of alternating courses of stone and stone rubble; the central gateway is round-arched and rises above the parapet. On the northern side the screen wall stands on terraced banks with coursed stone rubble retaining walls and stone flag and brick paving, served by flights of stone steps, and has a semicircular stone basin built against the principal gateway.

The terrace is enclosed to the south-west by an open loggia set on the curve, of paired piers in alternating stone and rubble bands. Stone flag paths lead from the principal entrances between retaining walls and low parapet walls, constructed in coursed rubble stone or coursed tile with moulded stone copings or stone balustrades, and set on a concrete base. Steps are in stone flags with tile coursing. The former axial pond has been filled in for safety, and lawns now replace planted beds. A central stair descends southwards on the main axis to the outer buttressed retaining wall. Here splayed stairs descend between a curved bastion framed by coursed stone and rubble stone piers and stepped parapet walls. On the east front there are straight flights of steps at either end of terraced walks and beds, terminating at each end in an alcove.

The rotunda also dates to 1912 and was designed by C E Mallows, though it probably incorporates earlier fabric. It is constructed of Portland stone and other limestone, with an iron cupola.

The rotunda is an open-sided Tuscan colonnade raised on a shallow stone plinth, aligned on the southern axis beyond the terrace. Originally positioned within the formal gardens where it was enclosed by low hedges, it now stands to the rear of a tennis court. The rotunda terminates the view from the house and forms an eyecatcher at the head of the avenue.

The rotunda stands on a three-stepped stone base with inset lozenge panels in different stone beneath the centre. The columns are set on tall bases and between each, arranged on the curve, is a stone seat in a different stone, supported centrally by a carved stone console bracket. The outer face of each seat is incised with a series of panels resembling strapwork, enriched with floral designs. Above stands a slender iron cupola with enriched curvilinear panels on the section facing the house and on the raised central motif.