Gothic Temple

See the changing light on this extraordinary landscape

This Temple, built in 1741, is one of the last additions to the garden at Stowe, formed for Lord Cobham by Charles Bridgeman and his successor, William Kent. That same year, Capability Brown arrived as gardener, to begin his own transformation of the landscape. It feels like an immense privilege to live within this extraordinary landscape, if just for a few days, witnessing the effect of the changing light on the monuments and enjoying the thrill of the scenes that Capability Brown created. Inside, the rooms are all circular with the main vault of the central space brightly painted with heraldry. The bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom are squeezed into the turrets while the sitting room occupies the main space, which soars to the gilded dome above.

One of over 40 temples and monuments

Lord Cobham dedicated his new temple, designed by James Gibbs, ‘to the Liberty of our Ancestors’, for which the Gothic style was deemed appropriate. Inside, the rooms are all circular, with moulded stone pilasters and plaster vaults – the main vault of the central space is gorgeously decorated with heraldry and mosaic. To be on the first floor gallery is an important architectural experience with a fine view over this former demesne of Lord Cobham and his successors, which the National Trust now looks after. Stowe School gave us a long lease of the Temple in 1970. It does have modern conveniences, if in rather surprising places! We hope that the splendour of the Temple and its surroundings will compensate those who stay here – it is one of the finest landscape gardens in the world.

It seems that it stood empty for a few years but by 1748 it had its painted glass installed (much of it from Warwick Priory) and the domed ceiling, with the arms of Lord Cobham’s ancestors, was completed after his death in 1749.

Gibbs’s original design, which survives in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, was altered by the addition of the pepperpot lanterns on the lesser towers and the crocketed pinnacles on the main tower - additions which helped reduce the heaviness of the building. The new Temple was seen very much in ecclesiastical terms. The circular rooms in the towers were called chapels in contemporary guide books and many actually called it the Gothic Church. Entering it in the 18th century must have felt very much like entering some dusky early Christian basilica, which explains why Horace Walpole described it as the 'Venetian' or 'Mosque Gothic.'

As befitted its churchlike character, the Temple was only sparsely furnished and, unlike many garden pavilions, it is unlikely that it was used for picnics and entertainments as Stowe had plenty of other buildings for that purpose. It was mainly intended for brief visits in the course of the long tour of the gardens, to include taking in the magnificent views from the top of the tower.

Perhaps with the decorative scheme for the ceiling in mind, the name subtly changed in 1745 'to the Liberty of our Ancestors.' To make clear who these ancestors were Lord Cobham moved the seven Saxon deities, from whom he traced his family, from their original setting and arranged them around his new Temple where they stayed until 1771-2.

The landscape around the Temple evolved too. Walks of varying degrees of complexity were cut through the wood to the north and on the east Bridgeman’s original straight walk and bastion disappeared under Capability Brown’s more informal style. The Temple’s wooded setting survived even when the garden was extended further east in the 19th century and it is only quite recently, with the loss of trees planted in the 18th century, that the Gothic Temple has come to have its present more open setting.

Gothic for us today is largely an architectural label, but in the 17th and early 18th century it had a much more potent meaning. Gothic architecture was equated with the Anglo-Saxons, who had come to signify Liberty and Government by Constitution, as a force against the despotism of the Roman world. Furthermore the Reformation was interpreted as the North’s rescuing of humanity, for the second time, from the tyranny of Rome. So Gothic came to imply all the moral and cultural values summed up in the term Enlightenment. This whole amalgam of ideas found a home in the Gothic Temple.

Such a declaration was also underlined by the choice of a triangular ground plan as this shape had come to be particularly associated with Medieval Romanticism, with overtones of a fight against oppression, both political and religious.

The building had, since the 1920s, been used by the School as an Armoury. A wooden hut had been added on the north side to provide storage space and most of the first floor windows had been blocked. There were already plans to move the Armoury nearer to the main school buildings, but it was some time before this was accomplished and work did not start on the Gothic Temple until 1969.

First to be dealt with was the stonework. The walls themselves were in reasonably good condition and only required repointing, but the parapets and pinnacles needed more attention; several of the stones were broken or damaged by decayed iron ties. The turrets also had to be partly taken down and rebuilt, with some new stone incorporated. This work was carried out with care and skill by Messrs Norman Collison of Bicester, the builders for the Temple's restoration.

The original roof had been replaced earlier this century with one of bitumen, which was beginning to wear out. This was taken off and a new slate roof laid instead, with new lead on the flat areas.

Traces could still be seen of the weather vanes on the tower pinnacles and old photographs showed that these had survived until quite recently. Using these and old prints five replicas were made and fixed in position.

The greatest effect upon the appearance of the building, after the removal of the hut, was achieved by unblocking the upper windows. There were some remains of wooden casements, but these were not original and were badly decayed. Newly-made steel frames were inserted instead, following the profiles of the openings.

The windows in the tower and turrets were blocked with masonry as part of the original design, pierced only with small quatrefoil openings. To make the turret rooms lighter, so they could be used as bedrooms, bathroom and a kitchen, it was necessary to open up the least visible of these. Once again they were fitted with simple metal framed casements. Some coloured glass survived in one bathroom window.

The central glass doors on two sides of the ground floor were another new introduction, again with the aim of making the building lighter and more agreeable inside. Luckily enough lead masks were salvaged, from the outer faces of the two solid doors they replaced, to make up a complete set on the remaining door.

Inside the Gothic Temple, apart from the work required for the conversion of the building such as introducing plumbing and electricity, the main task was the restoration of the painted ceiling under the dome, depicting the arms of Lord Cobham's ancestors. It was in poor condition, the plaster badly cracked and the paint itself decayed and flaking. It was most carefully and skilfully restored by Michael and Benjamin Gibbon in 1970.

The walls of the central rotunda had been painted in the colours of which traces remain, probably by the School. Because there was no trace of plaster on the walls, it was thought that they would not have been painted originally and Nattes's drawing of the interior, which was only discovered later, confirms this. Where the paint went straight onto the bare stone it was cleaned off and only where the surface was plastered was new paint applied. In some places rather messy pointing was revealed on the stonework. Although not original the mortar is quite old, which might indicate that the painting of the interior as a whole happened slightly earlier than was thought - in the late 19th century perhaps. The turret rooms were all completely redecorated.

The stone floors downstairs are mainly original, although some tiles needed replacing. On the gallery the original floor had been replaced with concrete, probably at the same time that bitumen was laid on the roof. In the two bedrooms the floors were raised to bring them nearer the windows.

The gallery balustrade is original, though painted in a new colour. The marks of the rifle name plates and fixings from Armoury days can still be seen on it. All the internal doors, like the glass outside doors, were fitted in 1970. The kitchen fittings were also designed by Mr Creighton, to make best possible use of the very restricted space.

The Gothic Temple is one of the very finest examples of the kind of building which the Landmark Trust was set up to help. It would be inconvenient to live in all the time and would require disfiguring alterations to make it less so (as even recent attempts to improve the heating sadly show). On the other hand it is ideally suited to short term occupation. Under these circumstances all the excitement of its architectural form can be enjoyed, without a lasting prospect of the practical drawbacks.