architecture, Chinoiserie, East Sussex, Folly

The House of Rock, Brighton, East Sussex

With the summer holidays in full swing, the Flâneuse is heading to the seaside for this week’s story. In the late 1960s Richard Attenborough filmed parts of Oh! What a Lovely War on the Brighton seafront. When filming was over, he donated a seaside kiosk that had featured in the film to the Brighton Festival. In May 1970 the architect Sir Hugh Casson transformed it into a ‘small folly built – or at least embellished  – in Brighton rock’.

architecture, belvedere, East Sussex, eyecatcher, Folly, garden, garden history, landscape, Monument, Tower

Gibraltar Tower, Heathfield Park, East Sussex

The Gibraltar Tower by Chris Broughton (1949-2015) as featured in 'Rockingham Whig Landscapes', New Arcadian Journal 71/72 (2013). Image courtesy of the New Arcadian Press.

In 1791 Francis Newbery, bought Bailey Park, an estate in East Sussex, which he renamed the Heathfield Park Estate. Almost immediately he set to work constructing this elegant tower on high ground in his park. The Folly Flâneuse has joined forces with The Garden Historian to elaborate on its history.