Garden Temple And Wall In The Grounds Of Former Attree Villa (Not Included)

The garden temple and associated retaining wall date from 1829-1830 and were designed by Charles Barry for Thomas Attree, a Brighton solicitor. Attree had previously developed Marine Square and purchased the land that would become Queen’s Park in 1825. The temple was originally part of a group with Barry’s Attree Villa, which was demolished in 1972, alongside the nearby Tower.

The temple is constructed of brick faced in cement and is square in plan, with a single stage and a shallow, pyramidal roof also faced in cement, built in the Italianate style. It is open on all sides, with unfluted Ionic pilasters on high socles at each corner. A blind balustrade runs along the north, east and south sides, below a slightly bowed frieze to the entablature. Each bay is subordered by a semicircular arch with an architrave supported on springing shafts, each featuring a console bracket keystone. The interior of each corner pier is rebated and the corner arris broaches at the top into a pendentive; a thin entablature above the pendentives supports a saucer dome. The roof is cast to imitate a lead covering and terminates in a pointed finial. Some damage is evident to the volutes of the corner pilasters. Originally, the temple contained a statue of a dog.

A retaining wall, roughly three and a half metres high and slightly battered, runs along the east side of the temple. It is scored to imitate ashlar, topped with an entablature band, and includes several moulded piers, one blocked segmental-arched opening, and remnants of a parapet.

Historically, George Duddell purchased the Villa and Queen’s Park in 1863. The site was later used as an Xaverian College for boys from 1909 to 1966. The Villa itself was listed Grade II* in 1971 before its demolition and subsequent redevelopment with flats in 1972. The garden temple, the retaining wall, gateposts and the foundations of old walls (found within Queen’s Park Terrace and Attree Drive) now represent the most visible remains of the original estate.