Doric Temple And Steps To Lakeside Pool

The Doric Temple and steps to the lakeside pool is a summer house built around 1860 for Reverend David Edwards, located in North Nibley, Stancombe Park. Constructed from limestone ashlar, the building features a flat roof that is not accessible for inspection. It is a single-storey, rectangular structure designed in a classical style, with porticoes and columned arcading at the front.

The central part of the building has a tetrastyle pedimented Roman Doric portico, with a central window behind it that has a moulded architrave and a cornice supported by console brackets. There are recessed areas on either side of the portico, which are behind two-columned arcading. Each end of the building has projecting distyle porticoes, each with a single window behind, also featuring moulded architraves and console-bracketed cornices. The windows are fitted with leaded fixed-lights that have stained glass margins. A continuous entablature runs along the top of the structure.

At the north end, there is a square porch with a moulded round-headed archway and smaller round-headed archways on the sides, leading to a six-panel door. The south end has a canted bay with small windows on the canted sides and a central chimney mounted on the parapet.

Inside, there is a long central room with coffered coving on the ceiling and a central roof light. The room features two-column marble Ionic end screens, with recesses on either side that have columns distyle in antis. A long narrow flight of stone steps leads from the center of the front elevation down to a circular stone-sided pool that projects into the lake. This temple is part of a larger sequence of features within the extensive Regency and early Victorian landscaped park and pleasure garden, and it groups with Parker's Lodge and The Studio.