Summary

A summer house overlooking the Great Lawn in Rivington Gardens.

Description

A summer house with associated staircases built from 1906 to a design by Thomas Mawson for Lord Leverhulme. It is built in gritstone and is rectangular in plan.

The single-storey flat-roofed summer house overlooks the Great Lawn to the west and is accessed up three steps leading to a broad centrally-placed entrance that is divided into three by two pairs of columns of thin, stacked gritstone. Similar columns are located at either end of the broad entrance. Slightly protruding bays to either side of the entrance each have a centrally-placed rectangular window opening with rock-faced gritstone surrounds. Staircases with associated flanking walls lead upwards at either side of the summer house and give access to a viewing deck surrounded by a parapet on the flat roof. The parapet is solid at each end of the summer house but is balustraded above the summer house's broad central entrance. Access to the interior of the summer house and its viewing deck is blocked by iron railings.

History

Rivington Gardens was one of a series of three major private gardens produced by Thomas Hayton Mawson (1861-1933) in collaboration with the industrialist and philanthropist William Hesketh Lever, Lord Leverhulme (1851-1925). The Rivington site was purchased by Lever in 1899 as a parcel of land which included the area now occupied by Lever Park to the west. Lever had already formulated ideas on how the grounds might be developed and in 1901 a single-storey wooden bungalow called 'Roynton Cottage' and intended for weekend visits and shooting parties was designed by Lever's school friend Jonathan Simpson. In 1905 Lever met Mawson who collaborated with him in the design of the gardens over the period 1906-22. However, others were also involved in the design including Thomas's son, Edward Prentice Mawson (1885-1954), who undertook the overall design and in the latter years was as much responsible for the project as his father, Robert Atkinson (1883-1952) who drew illustrations in the journal 'Civic Art' in 1911, and the landscape and architectural firm of James Pulham & Son who, in 1921, were responsible for a Japanese style garden and a steep and rugged ravine with waterfalls. Lever himself also influenced the gardens' layout, designing a seven-arched bridge across Roynton Lane.

In 1913 the bungalow was destroyed by fire then rebuilt on a grander scale. Following Lever's death in 1925 the house and gardens were purchased by John Magee. After Magee's death in 1939 the site was acquired by Liverpool Corporation and in 1948 the bungalow and three entrance lodges were demolished and the gardens became open to the public. In 1974 the site passed to the North West Water Authority following local government reorganisation.

The summer house overlooking the Great Lawn was constructed from 1906 to a design by Thomas Mawson.

Reasons for Listing

The Summer House overlooking the Great Lawn is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architect: this building is a good example of the landscape design work of Thomas Mawson;
* Group value: it not only complements the other surrounding listed structures, but are integral components of the designated garden.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26676170

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability