Pagoda and Bridge, Hythe, Hampshire

In December 1888, a ‘good property of modest pretensions’, with about 30 acres, was offered for sale near Hythe, on the Hampshire coast. Forest Lodge was marketed as a ‘most enjoyable residence for a yachtsman’ and was purchased as a country base by John Beach Fleuret, a London auctioneer and noted sailor. Fleuret immediately set to work remodelling the house and ornamenting the grounds. The major feature was a lake with a boathouse and bridge, both in a Chinese style. The only reminder today is a couple of blurry, but invaluable, photographs.

Fleuret (1840-1904) was active in local affairs and frequently opened his garden for public events. In 1902 he engaged the ‘celebrated pyrotechnists’ Brock & Co. to give a grand firework display to celebrate the Coronation of King Edward VII. Ordnance Survey maps confirm that the existing ‘fish pond’ was enlarged, and the bridge and boathouse were constructed, during Fleuret’s ownership of the estate.

The ‘pagoda’ was extant by 1904, but little else is known about Fleuret’s landscaping works. What we do know is that Fleuret started his working life at sea, having been ‘possessed of a burning desire to be a sailor’. He quickly moved up the ranks and remained at sea for seven years. For two years he served on a transport ship ‘on the China and Indian seas’ during the war with China, and thus participated in ‘many stirring scenes’. We can only wonder what he saw as a young man that influenced his decision to add Chinoiserie ornaments to his garden many years later.

Back on dry land Fleuret trained as an auctioneer, building a business of ‘gigantic proportions’, and his sailing was restricted to the more leisurely variety on the Solent, or Thames. Fleuret died in December 1904, and there was a flurry of excitement the following year when the contents of his will were announced. He was lauded in the press for his skill as a yachtsman, but of most interest to the newspapers was the story that he had bequeathed his dogs and parrot, together with a sum for their maintenance, to one Maria Campion Poole. Leaving no stone unturned, the Flâneuse tried to identify this lady: she appears to have been a solicitor’s wife from Erith in Kent.

A county history of 1908 mentions the ‘Chinese pagoda and bridge’ in the beautiful grounds of Forest Lodge, and also an observatory with a fine view over Southampton Water. By this date Forest Lodge was leased (by the late Fleuret’s trustees) to Alexander Baring (1848-1932), who had been looking for a ‘suitable country place’. In his memoirs Baring records that Fleuret had ‘practically rebuilt the place’ and, having added substantial parcels of land to the estate, had made it ‘one of the most beautiful and valuable small places in the South of England’. When Baring was not out sailing in his new yacht, he could play golf on the 9 hole course within the grounds. Sadly, Baring fails to mention the garden buildings.

The 1911 edition of Kelly’s Directory of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight suggests that the Chinese pagoda was ‘used as a dining room’, and also mentions a Chinese bridge and boathouse – but photographic and cartographic evidence suggests that the pagoda and boathouse were one and the same, with a banqueting room above, and space for the boat below.

Forest Lodge was sold by Fleuret’s trustees in 1950. The sales particulars described the ‘charming wooded grounds and lake’, by now extending to some 100 acres, but the garden buildings are not mentioned – probably because by this date they were decaying rapidly.

According to Barbara Jones, writing in Follies & Grottoes (1974), the boathouse was an ‘utterly derelict pavilion’ which was sinking into marshy ground on what was by then a farm. Nothing is known of the observatory, although it was probably the octagonal building which is shown on the 1909 25″ OS map. Jones wrote that it was demolished during the First World War (presumably it was a landmark for enemy planes), and this is backed up by map evidence: the building had disappeared by the time the revised OS map was published in 1932.

At pretty much the same date as Fleuret was erecting his Chinese-inspired features at Forest Lodge, the Scottish architect Robert Weir Schultz was working on a Chinese Bridge for the Earl of Bute at Dumfries House in Ayrshire. In 1899 he submitted this drawing of a bridge, although there is no evidence that it was ever built.

Inspired by the earlier design, a new bridge over the Lugar Water was opened at Dumfries House in 2017. It was erected to a design by Keith Ross in collaboration with the Duke of Rothesay, the title used by the then Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) when in Scotland. You can read more about the bridge here.

With apologies for the poor images of the lost structures – they fall into the category ‘better than nothing’ as they seem to be the best that survive.

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