Bushey Rose Garden

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An early 20th-century formal garden designed by T H Mawson for Sir Hubert von Herkomer RA.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The Rose Garden is situated to the north-east of the A411, High Street in the centre of Bushey, approximately 75 metres north-west of the junction of High Street and Melbourne Road. The site, approximately 0.5 hectares in size, is bounded to the south-west by the High Street, from which it is separated by a 19th-century stock-brick wall about 2 metres high. To the north-west the site adjoins the 19th-century United Reformed church, the premises of which are bounded by brick walls, and a late 20th-century development of two-storey houses, from which it is divided by a clipped laurel hedge. To the south-east the Rose Garden adjoins the grounds of The Cloisters, a late 20th-century development which replaces a 19th-century villa, from which the gardens are separated by brick walls, while to the east the site adjoins the gardens of mid-20th-century houses which occupy the site of the gardens of Lululaund. These domestic gardens are separated from the site by 19th- and early 20th-century brick walls and hedges, while to the north the site is separated from the gardens of mid-20th-century properties in Castle Close by beech hedges and fences. The site is generally level and well-screened from surrounding properties by shrubberies and boundary planting. There are views south-west across the golf course to the south-west of High Street, which occupies the grounds of Bushey House, a 19th-century mansion situated approximately 300 metres south-west of the site.

ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES

The Rose Garden is entered from High Street at a point approximately 100 metres north-west of the junction of High Street and Melbourne Road, and roughly 100 metres south-east of the junction of High Street and Koh-i-Noor Avenue. The entrance comprises a painted wrought-iron gate supported by brick piers under a tiled roof, which is set in the boundary wall at the western corner of the site. There is a further entrance to the site from Herkomer Road to the north-west, at a point roughly 95 metres east of the junction of Herkomer Road and Koh-i-Noor Avenue. Late 20th-century metal security gates lead to a tarmac walk flanked by rose borders which extends approximately 75 metres south-south-west to reach the body of the garden.

The early 20th-century entrance to the garden was situated at the eastern end of the pergola which separates the rose garden to the south from the kitchen garden to the north. The pergola was terminated to the east by a large, free-standing bronze relief of a female figure representing Lululaund (Stolen 1976, B Wood personal communication 2002), which served to screen a gateway in the boundary wall providing access to, and from, the gardens of Lululaund to the east.

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS

The gardens are divided into two sections, with the formal rose garden situated to the south, adjacent to High Street, and an area of lawns and shrubberies to the north on the site of the early 20th-century kitchen garden.

A brick-paved walk extends approximately 30 metres east-north-east from the High Street entrance to reach a flight of stone and brick steps which descends to the central, sunken area which forms the focal point of the formal garden. The walk is partly edged by low clipped box hedges, and is adjoined by areas of mature mixed shrubbery and specimen trees. Some 10 metres west of the steps descending to the sunken garden, the walk crosses a further brick-paved walk, the south-west section of four walks which form a square-plan outer walk surrounding the sunken garden. The outer sides of this square-plan walk are planted with clipped topiary yew hedges, while brick-paved walks lead from each angle of the square to a flight of brick and stone steps descending to the central sunken area. The walks leading east and west from the central sunken area are terminated by geometrical brick and stone paving which describe a semicircle. The approximately triangular spaces between the outer walk and the sunken garden are planted as rose beds. Photographs from the 1930s indicate that these beds were formerly edged with low box hedges and divided into small geometrical rose beds by grass paths; the beds were simplified in the late 20th century.

The central, sunken area of the garden is retained by low brick walls and is paved with a radiating pattern of stone flags, the interstices of which are paved in brick. The focal point of the garden is a fountain (Dry, 2002; listed grade II) constructed in Bavarian grey tufa, which comprises a quatrefoil-shaped base, originally forming four semicircular basins but today planted as flower beds, which surround a central square-section pedestal flanked by four free-standing columns which support a cornice beneath a block top. The walks, sunken area, and fountain were designed by Thomas Mawson in 1912 for Sir Hubert von Herkomer as a formal rose garden; much of the surrounding shrubbery and specimen trees including variegated hollies and the box and yew hedges survive from Mawson’s scheme. It has been suggested that the plan of the fountain and surrounding paving may reflect Buddhist symbolism (listed building description).

Walks leading north and south from the rose garden form a vista through the formal garden. The southern walk is flanked by mature mixed shrubbery and is terminated approximately 25 metres south of the fountain by a column (listed grade II) which stands on a slightly raised circular terrace surrounded by low brick walls. The terrace is paved with bricks laid in a radiating pattern, while the column itself is octagonal in section and is constructed in coursed brick and tiles under an ogival lead-covered cap. Designed in 1912 by Mawson, the column stands near the south-south-east corner of the site and commemorates the site of the entrance to Herkomer's School of Art which occupied this land between 1883 and 1904, succeeded by the Kemp-Welch School 1905-12. The north walk extends approximately 20 metres north of the fountain to reach a garden house (listed grade II) which itself forms the western termination of a pergola which encloses the north-east side of the rose garden. The garden house is square on plan with a gable on each facade, and is constructed in brick and roughcast under a tiled roof. The interior has a stone-flagged floor laid in a geometric pattern, a coved ceiling, and plasterwork panels. It formerly had a fireplace on its western wall which was served by a surviving brick chimney stack. The building is entered from the rose garden by an arched doorway which was formerly glazed. A similar arched doorway leads north to the former kitchen garden, while a further, square-headed doorway leads east to the pergola. The pergola itself comprises seven pairs of square-section brick piers which support a late 20th-century timber superstructure which replaces the slightly arched, early 20th-century timbers. The pergola is planted with ivy and climbing roses. The garden house and pergola were designed by Mawson in 1912; the pergola formed a link to the existing gardens associated with Lululaund to the east, the gateway being situated at the eastern end of the pergola, screened by a free-standing bronze relief (Stolen 1976).

To the north-east of the rose garden, and separated from it by the garden house and pergola, is an approximately rectangular area of lawn encircled by an elliptical, late 20th-century flagged walk. The lawn is adjoined to the north-east by mixed borders and a beech hedge, and to the south-east by further mixed borders, while to the north-west there is a laurel hedge and a group of mature pines and Douglas firs. At the northern corner of the lawn a pair of mature beech flanks the end of the tarmac walk leading to the northern or Herkomer Road entrance, while at the eastern corner a section of late 19th-century red sandstone Romanesque-style arcade has been re-erected to form an ornamental structure. This arcade originally formed part of the cloisters in the forecourt of the School of Art, sections of which were salvaged at its demolition in 1912 by Mrs Cridland, who formed them into a rose arbour in her garden at Bushey Heath. The fragments were discovered and re-erected in the Rose Garden in the 1990s. A carved stone Art Deco-style bird bath stands in the south-east border.

The lawn and borders occupy the site of an early 20th-century kitchen garden which appears to have formed part of Mawson's scheme of 1912. This kitchen garden itself took the place of an area of garden associated with the School of Art which comprised a rectangular walled enclosure with a perimeter walk (Ordnance Survey 1898).

REFERENCES

T H Mawson, The Life and Work of an English Landscape Architect (1927), pp 211-13

Country Life, 86 (16 December 1939), p 636; 153 (25 January 1973), pp 222-4; (1 February 1973), pp 280-1

N Pevsner and B Cherry, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire (2nd edition 1977), pp 121-2

G Longman, The Herkomer Art School (1883-1904) A Re-assessment (1999)

Maps

Valuable Freehold Property known as the Herkomer School of Art, Bushey, Herts, Sale plan, around 1912 (Bushey Museum)

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition 1898; 2nd edition 1914; 1934 edition

Archival items

Photographs of the Rose Garden, around 1930 (Bushey Museum)

Personal communication from Graham Saunders and Bryan Wood

Description written: September 2002

Amended: May 2004

Edited: July 2004