Gateway to Oatlands Park, Weybridge, Surrey

Summary

Gateway. Built in the mid-C18, possibly in 1747 to 1749, to a design by the architect William Kent, probably executed by his assistant Stephen Wright. Moved to the current location with some alterations in around 1858 when two gate lodges were added to each side of the gate; the gateway is built up against the porches and east and west facing walls of the gate lodges.

Description

MATERIALS: Portland stone ashlar gateway with wrought and cast-iron gates and railings.

DESCRIPTION: the gateway is built of rusticated Portland stone ashlar with a central gate flanked by pedimented piers and two smaller arched side gates set into a screen wall. It has a two-course plain ashlar plinth and several vermiculated stone courses. The piers are rectangular with round-headed niches surmounted by the coat of arms of the Pelham-Clinton family, including greyhounds and shield crests, beneath triangular pediments topped by ball finials. The round-headed arches to each side have radiating stone voussoirs and a vermiculated stone coping topped by ball finials. The gates are of wrought and cast-iron, including gilded spearhead finials and decorative scrollwork.

History

Oatlands Park originated as a Tudor deer park covering 538 acres and containing Oatlands Palace, one of many residences near London used by Henry VIII (a scheduled monument, see List entry 1191628). Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I all spent time at Oatlands but for James I it was more of a home and in 1611 he transferred the palace to his Queen, Anne of Denmark. Inigo Jones worked at Oatlands and built a silkworm house and a Great Gate (both demolished). Anne died in 1619, and in 1630 John Tradescant the Elder was appointed 'Keeper of His Majesties Gardens, Vines and Silkworms' at Oatlands. In 1650, following the execution of Charles I, Oatlands was bought by Robert Turbridge, who demolished it for the value of its building materials. The park reverted to Henrietta Maria, Charles I's widow on the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. In 1669, the estate was leased to the Herbert family but passed to Henry Clinton, seventh Earl of Lincoln, in 1716. He probably built Oatlands House, about 500m east of the site of the palace, and laid out the grounds in about 1725. Henry Pelham-Clinton, ninth Earl of Lincoln, inherited the estate in 1730. The garden had a formal layout at this time, including a terrace and a cruciform canal. From the 1740s onwards, the earl redesigned the gardens in the new informal landscape style, assisted by such notables as Lord Burlington, William Kent, Joseph Spence, and Stephen Wright. It was sold to Frederick, Duke of York, in 1788 who rebuilt the house following a fire. In 1824, Oatlands was acquired by Edward Hughes Ball Hughes, the famous wealthy Regency gambler and dandy known as ‘The Golden Ball’, who later fled abroad because of his debts. The property was auctioned in 1846, when it was divided into building plots following the construction of the London and Southampton Railway through part of the site. The house and 97 acres was subsequently sold to the South Western Hotel Company; the house being converted to a hotel in 1858 which it still remains (2021). In the C20 the grounds were much reduced in size as they were redeveloped for housing. It is a Grade II-registered park (List Entry 1000119).

The Oatlands Park gateway was built in the mid-C18 to a design by the architect and landscape designer William Kent (1685-1748) at the Weybridge end of Oatlands Drive before being moved to its current location, with some alterations, in around 1858. Kent had a major role in introducing the Palladian style of architecture into England and originating the informal style of gardening known as the English landscape garden that subsequently spread across Europe (V&A 2014). He had strong links with Henry Pelham-Clinton who commissioned work on the Oatlands estate in the 1740s. Kent also designed several buildings at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, including the Oxford Gate (since relocated and altered, Grade I-listed), which appeared in a collection of his work published by John Vardy in 1744. The Oatlands Park Gates also replicated this design. In 1747, a public enquiry was held to enclose the road between Walton and Weybridge to form a footway and coachway (Archive NeL 543, Newcastle Collection). William Kent offered the earl his services in 1745 and between 1747 and 1749 the earl paid an extensive amount of money to masons, bricklayers and a smith, which may have included the construction of the gates (Archives NeA 669 and NeC 3111). Some of Kent’s work was overseen by his assistant Stephen Wright who continued to work on the estate after Kent died in April 1748. Wright was well placed to take over work on the estate; he had served as Clerk of Works at Hampton Court Palace from 1746 and Richmond New Park Lodge from 1754. Wright replicated several features at Stowe designed by Kent, including the Temple of Venus and Ancient Virtue (Symes 1992). He was involved on work at Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, by 1769, where another copy of the gateway design, the Drayton Gate, was constructed (Grade II*-listed).

Oatlands Park Gates are possibly marked by a couple of small black dots on Rocque’s map of Surrey published in 1768. The gates appear in a drawing in a guide produced when the Duke of York opened Oatlands Park to members of the public in 1822. A more detailed engraving was also produced by Letitia Byrne in the same year. The gateway was moved to its current location, facing Oatlands Drive, at some point between 1850 and 1864; probably upon the conversion of the house to the Oatlands Park Hotel which opened in 1858, providing a formal point of entry to the hotel grounds. The gates are referred to in their previous location in Felix Summerley’s Pleasure Excursions: Walton and Weybridge (1847) and William Keane’s Beauties of Surrey (1849). However, they are shown in their new location in Edward Ryde’s 1864-65 survey of Walton and Weybridge (Surrey History Centre Reference: 602/ Roll 6). Upon relocation, the gateway was heightened by an additional ashlar plinth course to make it appear grander. This change in height meant that the two side gates were now too small to fill each arch and it was necessary to insert wrought-iron scrollwork above them. Flanking railings were also added. The number of ball finials over the arches were reduced and two moved/placed over the pediments of the main gate piers. In addition, two gate lodges were built to each side of the gateway, probably in order to provide surveillance and security to the entrance to the hotel grounds. The lodges are now occupied as private dwellings. A condition survey of the gateway was carried out in 2017 and the gates repaired in 2018, involving paint analysis, steam cleaning, insertion of Portland stone indents, replacement of corroded cramps, re-pointing and renewal of a spherical stone plinth and finials.

Reasons for Listing

The gateway to Oatlands Park, built to a design by William Kent in about 1747 to 1749, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest

* the gateway was built in the mid-C18 to a design by the acclaimed architect and landscape designer William Kent;
* for the architectural quality and detailing of the ashlar masonry, featuring carved niches, rusticated voussoirs, pediments, ball finials and the coats of arms of Henry Pelham Clinton, the ninth Earl of Lincoln and second Duke of Newcastle;
* the gateway is now one of the best surviving of a trio of Kent's design; a slightly earlier gateway (the Oxford Gateway, built about 1744) at Stowe School, Bucks, is Grade I-listed and a later gateway (the Drayton Gateway, built about 1769) at Clumber Park, Notts is Grade II*-listed.

Historic interest

* for its historic association with William Kent, a hugely influential architect and landscape architect with a major role in introducing the Palladian style of architecture into England and originating the informal style of gardening known as the English landscape garden that subsequently spread across Europe;
* as part of Oatlands Park, an informal landscape laid out from the 1740s under Henry Pelham-Clinton, ninth Earl of Lincoln, assisted by such notables as Lord Burlington, William Kent, Joseph Spence, and Stephen Wright, on land which originated as a Tudor deer park to Oatlands Palace, a residence of Henry VIII and successive monarchs.

Group value

* with the Grade II-listed gate lodges, Grade II-registered Oatlands Park and the Grade II-listed Oatlands Park Hotel, as well as the scheduled monument of Oatlands Palace and the Grade II-listed entrance gateway and walls of the palace.

External Links

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