Tea House in the Japanese Garden, Bitchet Green

A Japanese tea house, imported from Japan, which forms part of a Japanese garden designed by the architect Raymond Berrow for Hugh Micklem, executed between 1919 and 1921.

MATERIALS: wooden framework to walls with painted infilling and wooden floor, metal guttering and rain spout and hipped thatched roof.

PLAN: a part-raised, single-storey building, square on plan. The rear and part of the side elevations have walls providing a large alcove, the remainder is open.

DESCRIPTION: the roof has two hips, the upper one covered in water reed thatch, the lower one has a metal covering, metal guttering and a front water spout. The walls have thin square framing with infill painted red, formerly white. The rear wall has a central oval unglazed opening with wooden divisions. The front of the building is supported on two wooden corner posts with braces to the overhanging roof. There is a wooden floor, wooden handrail to the front and part of the sides and the floor at the front of the building partially overhangs a pond.