| Summary : Gardens to White Lodge, Richmond Park design in 1805 by Humphry Repton to act as a buffer between the Lodge and Richmond Park. The garden is laid out in an oval around the Lodge, on high ground overlooking much of Richmond Park. It is lawned, with a central path from the Lodge leading westwards to the Queen's Ride, a mid-eighteenth century vista, along which the house looked. The perimeter is planted by a belt of trees and shrubs, and there are small, highly formal compartments immediately north of the Lodge, including topiary yews and a small summerhouse. The present sports court replaced a vine garden. A sunken garden to the south of the Lodge was destroyed by the construction of an extension after 1940. The garden was surveyed by RCHME field staff in 1995. |
More information : TQ 206 732 Garden
White Lodge is a Palladian Hunting Lodge built in Richmond Park between 1727 and 1729 under George II. Initially designed without gardens (its setting deliberately contrived to open straight into parkland), in the early 19th century the then owner, Viscount Sidmouth, asked Humphry Repton to design a small garden to act as a buffer between the Lodge and Richmond Park. Unfortunately Repton did not produce one of his famous Red Books, but essentially it represented a return to some formality, and creating a buffer between the house and the Park.
Tha garden is laid out in an oval around the Lodge, on high ground overlooking much of Richmond Park. The garden is lawned, with a central path from the Lodge leading westwards to the Queen's Ride, a mid-eighteenth century vista, along which the house looked. The perimeter is marked by a belt of trees and shrubs, and there are small, highly formal compartments immediately north of the Lodge, (including topiary yews and a small summerhouse), shown on Ordnance Survey 1st Edition maps dated 1894 (1a). The present sports court replaced a vine garden, and a sunken garden to the south of the Lodge was destroyed by the construction of an extension after 1940 (1b).
The garden was surveyed by the RCHME in February 1995 during the Royal Parks Project. See archive report and survey plan at 1:500 scale. (1)
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