Gazebo, Steps, Terraces And Walls To North West Of Merefield House

The gazebo, along with surrounding steps, terraces, and walls, dates to the early 18th century and is located to the north-west of Merefield House.

It is constructed of stucco to the forward-facing gable, Flemish-bond brick elsewhere, with a slate roof and a brick stack to the rear gable. The building has a square plan. Externally, it is a single-storey structure with a two-window range. A steep Dutch gable with moulded coping originally supported a gilded eagle at the apex, and a sun dial to the front. Four pilasters sit below a moulded cornice, creating three narrow bays; the outer bays contain tall windows with six rows of three panes each, set within moulded architraves with segmental arches and keystones. The central bay features a lower, flat, moulded hood over a 20th-century door.

Inside, the interior remains largely original. The square coved ceiling features a hemispherical dome at the center, decorated with pendant vine leaves and grapes within a square moulded frame and ornamented spandrels. Further features include a fine box cornice above full-height panelling above the dado, plain panelling below, original skirting boards, a limestone fireplace with an eared architrave with stone hobs, a 20th-century free-standing stove, and a panelled decoration including one large panel to the top, a narrow horizontal one to the centre, and paired raised panels above the fireplace. Shell alcoves with fretted shelves and raised-and-fielded panels to cupboards are flanking the fireplace. The floor is of limestone squares with small slate squares inset at the corners.

A long flight of stone steps and terraces leads up to the door, and high brick walls with Ham Hill stone coping, moulded to the edges, enclose the garden to the south, connecting to the late 19th-century wing of Merefield House. These walls sweep up to join the gazebo’s facade just below the cornice. Lead urns stand on each corner to the north, and the lower flights of steps are flanked by pairs of piers with raised and fielded panels. The gazebo represents a fine example of a town house structure with associated terraced garden features.