The Ice House and Ha-Ha Wall at Bromley Palace Park, Bromley, London

Description

785/0/10162 KENTISH WAY
10-AUG-10 Bromley
The ice house and ha-ha wall at Bromley
Palace Park

GV II
Ice house with summerhouse extension and separate ha-ha wall. The ice house probably has a late-C18 core, modified in the later C19 when a summerhouse was added. The ha-ha wall is of later C19 fabric probably on the line of an earlier late-C18 ha-ha.

ICE HOUSE/SUMMERHOUSE
MATERIALS: Exterior of red handmade bricks in Flemish bond but interior walls are of English bond with stretcher bond to the vaulted roof. Ice house roof covered in bitumen, summerhouse tiled.

PLAN: Rectangular chamber (originally two divided chambers) with summerhouse attached to south.

EXTERIOR: South or entrance front has a tall blank wall with a small gable in the centre and brick dogtooth cornice. On the left side is a pointed arched blocked opening with stone cill. Attached to the centre is a garden shelter, also of brick with deep plinth, the bricks fractionally larger than those to the ice house, with a tiled roof. The gable front facing south is rendered and is supported on a central wooden chamfered post. The west return contains a wooden door. The east and west sides of the ice house are built into an earthen bank and have a similar dogtooth cornice which ends a foot or two from the south end and is replaced by a stepped parapet for the remainder of these sides. The east side has a C20 pointed arched opening, inserted when the building was adapted to form a canoe store. The north elevation has only a low brick wall with two charging holes with curved sides, for shovelling ice in from the lake. Above this the curved roof of the ice house with bitumen covering is visible.

INTERIOR: Access into the ice house interior is by an angled entrance with cambered head. The interior has a vaulted roof and was originally divided into two rectangular chambers but the central division was removed in the C20. The western chamber is 12 feet long by 9 feet 4 inches wide and the eastern chamber is 11 feet long by 9 feet 4 inches wide. The walls are constructed in English bond and the roof in stretcher bond, painted to the western chamber and rendered to the eastern chamber. Recent repairs to the exterior walls have revealed a cavity between the exterior and interior brick walls. The floor was concreted in the C20.

HA-HA WALL
DESCRIPTION: A three feet high retaining wall of yellow burr bricks with occasional tiles on edge, on the western side extending almost to a 1960s student accommodation block converted into offices and on the western side terminating about 30 to 40 feet east of the ice house/summerhouse. The main body of the wall is of blocks of bricks orientated vertically and horizontally in a basketweave pattern, but the top has a course of bricks on edge with a further course of headers immediately below.

HISTORY: The combined ice house/summerhouse and the ha-ha wall are situated in the grounds of the former Bishop of Rochester's Palace in Bromley. The medieval palace was demolished and replaced by a classical building in 1776. In 1845 the Diocese of Rochester sold the Palace and its estate to Mr Coles Child, who carried out improvements to the main house in the 1860s, by R Norman Shaw, who also designed some estate cottages and a bailiff's cottage for him. Mr Coles Child also improved the grounds by constructing Pulhamite landscape features and a folly. Ernest Newton worked here in 1902 and 1920.

On the 1861 Ordnance Survey map the ice house is not specifically marked but there is a kinked section in a pathway surrounding the lake, suggesting that the path avoided a building in the position of the present ice house. The pathway still exists, running to the north of the present structure. Also on this map the ha-ha wall is clearly shown running roughly parallel to the southern end of the lake. On the 1898 Ordnance Survey map the present outline of the ice house is shown marked "Summer House" and including the projecting gabled shelter on the south side. There is no change in the mapping of the ha-ha wall between the 1861 and 1898 editions.

In 1930 the Coles Child family ceased to own the estate and it became first a teacher training college, called Stockwell College, and later Bromley Civic Centre. In the days of Stockwell College the ice house was converted into a canoe store and in 1975 the building was inspected by Geoffrey G Cooke, who described it and provided measured drawings.

SOURCES:
Unpublished notes and measured drawing of 1975 by Geoffrey G Locke. Copy held by Bromley Civic Society.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
The late C18 brick ice house with later C19 added summerhouse and C19 brick ha-ha wall at Bromley Palace Park are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date: the ice house was probably constructed in the late C18 though modified in the later C19.
* Architectural interest: it is fairly elaborate for an ice house with a tall brick retaining wall with later dogstooth cornice and the attached later summerhouse is constructed of good quality materials; its brickwork is unusual because it is constructed of burr bricks in a rare basketweave pattern.
* Rarity of plan type: the original plan form of two rectangular chambers is very unusual with only five other examples listed in England. Only two other listed examples comprise an ice house combined with another structure.
* Intactness: it survives substantially intact apart from some minor C20 modifications when it was converted into a canoe store.
* Historical interest: the ha-ha wall is constructed of C19 brick but is probably on the line of an earlier, late C18 ha-ha.
* Group Value: the ice house/summerhouse and ha-ha wall have strong group value with the listed main house and 1860s landscape features.

Reasons for Listing

Listable at Grade II

External Links

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