Restoration House, Rochester – Gazebo ⏐ Grade I Listed Building ⏐ Conservation Area
This small project required planning and listed building consent to build a replacement gate to the beautiful Elizabethan gardens of Restoration House, Rochester.
The restoration of the gardens at Restoration House included the creation of a distinctive Gazebo, built on the most prominent corner of the site to link the intermediate and upper terraces. Its defining feature is a cylindrical brick core capped with a hidden dome and central oculus, allowing natural light to illuminate the interior and the radial stone staircase winding around the core.
The Gazebo combines multiple historical references in a Mannerist spirit: part stair tower, part banqueting pavilion, part grotto, and part fortified gatehouse. Squint windows, ironwork, and subtle parapet adjustments choreograph light and views, connecting the Gazebo visually and functionally to the restored terraces, the Chalice water feature, and the wider garden.
By integrating surviving Tudor walls and archaeological fragments, the structure embodies both historical fidelity and imaginative interpretation, creating a focal point that revives the layered Renaissance and Mannerist character of the garden.
