Pasmore Pavilion (also known as Apollo Pavilion)

The following is from the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. For the most up-to-date Register entry, please visit The National Heritage List for England (NHLE):

A mid 20th century public open space designed by Victor Pasmore as part of the Sunny Blunts residential development within the New Town of Peterlee. The focal point is the Pasmore Pavilion sculpture, designed by Pasmore in 1963 and erected in 1968.

Location, Area, Boundaries, Landform and Setting

The Pasmore Pavilion and the open space surrounding it stands l km south-west of the centre of the New Town of Peterlee at the centre of the Sunny Blunts residential development (1960s). The l ha site is enclosed on three sides, to the north, west and south, by Oakerside Drive and its associated houses, bungalows and flats, and to the east by the east half of the development flanking Sunny Blunts road. The site overlies part of one arm of a small valley known as Blunts Dene, the other arm of which starts at the centre of the town. The two arms join 800 m east of the site, eventually entering Castle Eden Dene which runs south-west to north-east 600 m south of the site. The Sunny Blunts arm of Blunts Dene valley slopes gently down from west to east, above Castle Eden Dene.

The setting is largely urban, with a large playing field adjacent to the north-east, and other open spaces bounding the Sunny Blunts development to the north, west and south. To the east Blunts Dene becomes wooded, set in a steep gorge which runs into further woodland. The site is overlooked by the residential buildings of Sunny Blunts, with views of the fingers of open space with which it is integrally linked, which extend out between the groups of houses, flats and bungalows. The whole forms a single, integral composition.

Entrances and Approaches

There are several points of open access to the Pavilion landscape (as here registered) from around the perimeter of the area. One of the main approaches enters the site at the west end from a path 20 m north of the east end of Severn Close. A path broken by short flights of steps leads east, flanked by sloping lawns, beneath a brick bridge carrying Oakerside Road. From the bridge there are views down to the lake and Pavilion to the east. A short tunnel shelters the path beneath the bridge, which leads out between further banked lawns sloping upwards towards the houses and bungalows beyond, the view east being dominated and terminated by the Pasmore Pavilion. The path curves eastwards, retained by a brick wall to the north, and overlooks the lake and the west side of the Pavilion.

The Pavilion landscape is approached from the east half of the Sunny Blunts development via a path which runs between the northern side of the houses and flats and the south side of the Dene. 15 m east of the Pavilion a short spur off this path curves south down the Dene bank, bounded to the east by a brick retaining wall. As it reaches the stream bed the spur opens out into a circular viewing platform retained above the stream by a brick wall. The platform is overlooked by the Pavilion to the west, the two being connected by the stream, and views extend west beyond the Pavilion and lake to the distant housing. Views also extend north-east towards a playing field and east for a short distance along the wooded Dene. The main path continues 15 m west from the spur to arrive at the south side of the Pavilion.

Paths also lead to the Pavilion from between the housing to the north and south, giving access from Oakerside Drive. That from the south descends a slope via a flight of shallow steps.

Principal Building

The Pasmore Pavilion (1968, extended early 1970s, listed Grade II*), originally known as the Apollo Pavilion, stands towards the east end of the site as here registered. In Brutalist style, of two stories in reinforced concrete, it is constructed so as to cantilever over the lake to the west. The upper storey is designed to serve both as a bridge over the lake and as a roof for the main circuit footpath. The original steps at the north and south ends of the Pavilion which led to the upper storey have been removed. Pasmore designed the Pavilion to accompany the lake so that together they would form a visual and pedestrian centre for the housing area in Sunny Blunts; also to symbolise architecturally the idea of a modern New Town. The monumental sculpture served as an eyecatcher and as a visual link to the road bridge to the west, with the dammed stream serving to enhance the prospect.

The Sunny Blunts residential development (outside the area here registered), for which the Pavilion landscape forms a focus, was constructed during the 1960s. The relatively low density development consists mainly of bungalows and two-storey houses, with occasional four-storey blocks of flats punctuating the skyline, of brick with flat roofs. Many of the roofs have subsequently been replaced with pitched roofs. The buildings immediately surrounding the Pavilion landscape were designed in small groups separated by open green space. They were not designed to have extensive gardens of their own, and those garden spaces allocated to individual dwellings are either entirely unbounded or else are enclosed and shielded by high wooden fences of which the original design was peculiar to this development. The landscape detailing of steps, paths, fences and other structural elements surrounding the housing in Sunny Blunts forms part of the character of this development.

Other Land

The site (as here registered) consists of an open space, with little planting other than grass, which is dominated by the Pasmore Pavilion sitting at the east end. A sinuous c 80 m long lake flows through the centre of the landscape. Carefully graded grass banks lead down from the surrounding houses and bungalows to the shore line, the point where the banks meet the lake being marked by a band of cobbles. Around the lake leads a circuit path which passes beneath the Pavilion. There is no direct point of vehicular access, rather the Pavilion and lake are designed to be reached by foot from the surrounding housing. At the west end of the lake a spur leads south from the northern shore path as part of the circuit walk, carried across the inflow pipe by a concrete retaining wall set into the sculpted bank.

From here the circuit walk runs east across the lawn on the south side of the lake, to arrive at the south side of the Pavilion. From here the circuit path runs north in serpentine form across the lake dam, beneath the Pavilion and between its legs. The tarmac serpentine path is set in a broad bank of cobbles over which the Pavilion stands. Views extend from the path above the dam, east along Blunts Dene and north-east towards a playing field. At the east end of the lake stands a concrete, pillar-like, abstract sculpture by Jon Pasmore (1970s), held above the water by a metal rod.

East of the Pavilion and dam the stream falls into an open concrete culvert, the steep banks of which are retained in some places by large expanses of cobbles and in others by rough grass. The serpentine culvert curves around the north side of the viewing platform before entering the wooded end of the Dene (outside the area here registered).