The Temple

NZ 10 SE ASKE ASKE PARK

10/4 The Temple 4.2.69

• I

Gothick folly. c1745. By Daniel Garrett from a preliminary design by William Kent for Sir Conyers D'Arcy. Ashlar and coursed rubble. Irregular plan of a 3-storey octagonal tower with rear projecting spiral stair turret, set within two lower flanking square towers with rounded projecting turrets to front, all set behind a single-storey bastion. Bastion: ashlar central section with pointed-arched entrance to pointed tunnel vault with panelled sides leading to door of 6 fielded panels, the outer arch flanked by pointed-arched niches with blind quatrefoils above, all with traceried frieze above, flanked by slighty projecting side bays with trefoiled niches with blind quatrefoils above, the whole central section with coved cornice and pierced strapwork parapet; coursed rubble recessed ranges flanking, each of 4 ashlar pointed-arched hollow-chamfered niches with octagonal dividing columns with bell caps surmounted by coved cornice and solid parapet with coping; outer coursed rubble semicircular turrets each with board door in round-arched continuously moulded ashlar surround with blind quatrefoil above, and with pierced diagonal parapet. Central octagonal tower: ashlar, with central glazed door below pointed-arched fanlight with intersecting glazing bars in Gothick pilastered doorcase with crocketed finials, flanked by pointed-arched sash windows with glazing bars and hoodmoulds; double string course supporting blind arcaded half-storey with 3 pointed arches on each facet; moulded string and sill courses with pointed-arched sash windows with glazing bars and hoodmoulds; moulded string to incomplete parapet. Flanking, recessed links each with pointed-arched opening, now with glazed door below fanlight with intersecting glazing bars and hoodmould, with blind quatrefoil above and crenellated parapet. Outer towers each with a matching window and square corbels above carrying upper stage with elaborate blind quatrefoil and crenellated parapet. Rear, central tower: basement has, flanking stair turret, a round-arched sash window with glazing bars in ashlar surround with imposts; pointed sash windows and blind arcading as front; the rear wall of the structure other than the tower blind. Interior: room on main floor of tower has plaster vault, rising up behind blind arcaded stage of exterior, with Gothick triple-arcaded coving rising from anthropomorphic corbels, ribs and central roundel decorated with guilloche; in roundel the coat of arms of Sir Conyers D'Arcy and his wife. John Harris, "The Dundas Empire", Apollo magazine, September 1967; Peter Leach, "In the Gothick Vein; The Architecture of Daniel Garrett, Part III", Country Life, 26 September 1974.

Listing NGR: NZ1744903572