Paradise Belvedere

623/0/10073 PARADISE DRIVE 22-FEB-07 Paradise Belvedere

II Gazebo. C18, probably second quarter. Faced in knapped flint with red brick and stone dressings. Symmetrical 3-bay structure designed in the Palladian manner with pedimented central bay and round-arched seating alcove. Lower, recessed flanking wings have blind arches and upswept parapets with scotia profiles. Impost bands to arches. Built to command a prospect over the parkland to Compton Place (qv).

HISTORY: The construction date and designer of the Paradise Belvedere are unknown, but it may have been built by Spencer Compton, younger son of the Earl of Northampton, ennobled in 1728 as Lord Wilmington. Compton bought the estate in 1724, changing its name from Bourne Place to Compton Place. He remodelled the existing Elizabethan house c1726 to the design of the Palladian architect Colen Campbell, whom he commissioned through his acquaintance with Lord Burlington, the leading exponent of the C18 Palladian revival. The grounds were worked on by Bridgeman between 1728-38. A folly is recorded as being built c1740, but it is unclear whether this was the same structure. However, the building's austere Palladianism is consistent with the date range of Wilmington's occupation.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Of special architectural interest as an elegant, well-proportioned C18 garden building in the Palladian taste, and historic interest for its association with Compton Place, whose grounds are included in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. While the parkland in which the Belvedere stands, now a golf course, is outside the registered area, the building's aesthetic function within the broader historic landscape as both a viewpoint and eyecatcher remains legible. It thus has important group value with the Grade I listed house and registered garden.