In the 1970s the Coutts Bank building in central London was partly remodelled to a design by the architect Sir Frederick Gibberd. A new glass entrance was designed to replace the columned central section of the facade on the Strand. As work progressed Gibberd salvaged some of the redundant masonry to reuse at his Essex home. There he indulged in what the Architects’ Journal called ‘that virtuous activity’ of building follies.

Sir Frederick Gibberd (1908-1984) was the Master Planner of the new town created at Harlow, in Essex, from 1946. Needing to be close to the works, he bought a small cottage on Marsh Lane. He remodelled the house and developed the extensive garden, which had plenty of space for the sculpture and architectural salvage Gibberd collected with his second wife, Patricia (they married in 1972).

Gibberd decided to use some of the redundant masonry  from Coutts to create a ‘Roman’ Temple in the garden. His colleagues on site were apparently disgruntled by this decision, as removing the columns Gibberd had chosen was time consuming work – they would have preferred to smash the whole lot to bits.

The masonry was delivered the following year, and as Gibberd wrote ‘a huge lorry equipped with a crane drove down my lane, demolished three trees and dumped a pile of huge fragments in a ditch opposite my entrance gates’. The stone was dragged to the prepared site on a sledge with steel runners.

Three men with a crane and a digger were recruited to construct the folly. Two Portland stone columns and a section of frieze were to be erected in the form of a temple inspired by ancient Roman models. Steel rods were inserted in the columns to give support and one of the men sat in the bucket of the digger to guide the stones into place. The crane driver was asked to drop a third column, so that it would appear to have fallen and broken. The bewildered man exclaimed ‘They’ve come all the way from London and I’m to drop one of them?’, and apparently demanded the instruction in writing so that he couldn’t be held responsible for the damage.

It was, Gibberd concluded, a ‘very expensive folly’, but it brought him great pleasure. When passers-by paused at the gate and asked what the structure was, Gibberd enjoyed telling them it was a fragment from an ancient Roman temple discovered during the development of a nearby industrial estate.

Four urns from the Trafalgar Square facade of the bank, which Gibberd believed to be made of Coade Stone, were mounted on a plinth and placed at an angle to the temple to create a pleasing ensemble.

Although Gibberd claimed to have no masterplan for his garden, he did draw an exquisite plan and elevation of the temple and its garden setting. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1981 as ‘Roman’ Temple (Gibberd was elected RA in 1969).

The Architects’ Journal thought the whole of the bank’s facade should have been retained, or at least reused at another building, but as their reporter concluded, at least Gibberd had ‘tried to atone and Freddie’s folly promises to become a well-loved landmark in Freddie’s own New Town’.

Gibberd died in 1984 and left his house and garden to Harlow for the benefit of the people of the town, although initially it remained home to his widow and there were only occasional open days. Complications over his will left the garden vulnerable (a long story), but there was strong local support and in 1995 the Gibberd Garden Trust was formed to maintain the site and welcome visitors. Lady Gibberd remained closely involved until her death in 2006.

Gibberd said that the half a mile approached road gave his garden ‘a quality of remoteness’. Modern housing now stands close to the track, but is still an adventure to drive down the long lane, wondering if you have perhaps taken a wrong turn, only to suddenly spot the eagle-topped gateposts.

Gibberd’s comments on making the garden are from his lecture notes On Making Gardens and Landscapes which are in the Gibberd archive at the Garden Museum.  Sir Frederick and Lady Gibberd were early supporters of the museum where you can see a small display celebrating Gibberd’s work. The account of the bemused lorry driver is from oral histories collected by Annalise Taylor and published to mark 25 years of the Gibberd Garden Trust.

The Gibberd Garden reopens for the 2026 season on Wednesday 1 April. There’s more here.

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A new exhibition has just opened at Compton Verney in Warwickshire: Towering Dreams: Extraordinary Architectural Drawings explores how architects in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries ‘understood the world around them and the ideas and cultures that inspired them’. The majority of the wonderful drawings in the exhibition are on loan from Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, and the subjects include structures we would know today, as well as extraordinary designs that never made it off the drawing board.

The Flâneuse couldn’t resist a jaunt, and wasn’t disappointed. Without giving too much away the exhibition includes works by Piranesi, Robert Adam and Joseph Michael Gandy among others, and features such delights as this wildly ambitious kennel, designed for Frederick Harvey, Bishop of Derry and 4th Earl of Bristol’s estate at Downhill in Northern Ireland. Unsurprisingly, it never made it off the drawing board. Whilst a serious exercise in design, the ancient temple/doghouse created by Soane also has humorous touches, including a cluster of canines clambering around the vase atop the dome.

Many of the works on display, including the title image and the views above, were produced by unidentified draughtsmen in Sir John Soane’s office. They were drawn at a large scale to illustrate Soane’s lectures at the Royal Academy, where he was Professor of Architecture.

This image, showing the vast array of buildings at Kew, near London, against what appears to be a radiant sun, shows Soane’s interest in Sir William Chambers’ designs for the royal gardens at Kew. In January 1820 King George III died, and in a lecture in March of that year Soane ‘took an opportunity, in referring to the different buildings in the Royal gardens at Kew […] to pay an elegant and animated tribute’ to the memory of the late king. Sadly history does not record if this particular view of the garden ornaments was displayed on an easel to illustrate the subject.

The grounds of Compton Verney are sadly lacking in follies, but there is a pretty thatched ice-house.

Museums and galleries are having a tough time at the moment, with many under threat of closure or having to reduce their opening hours, so sponsorship is vital. The Flâneuse is therefore happy to mention that the exhibition is supported by SE-Solicitors who are based, like Compton Verney, in the heart of England.

The exhibition, curated by Jane Simpkiss, can be seen at Compton Verney until 31 August 2025 and the Flâneuse highly recommends a visit. If you don’t already know Compton Verney, there is also a fabulous permanent collection, further special exhibitions and grounds laid out by Capability Brown to explore. Everything you need to know is here.

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