Showing posts with label grotto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grotto. Show all posts

August 20, 2025

Underground London - Ewell grotto

Ewell grotto is not underground and is rather tiny. But because it is called grotto I was curious to see it. It is located in the grounds of Ewell Court house, west of London. The house dates to the Edwardian period, 1870s.


It is known as The Fernery/Grotto.  It was part of a large conservatory attached to the house and was part of beautiful grounds designed by John Henry Bridges and landscaped by Pulhams of Broxbourne. The conservatory  was taken down at the start of World War 2



The inside of the grotto is made from pulhamite. Pulhamite was a patented anthropic rock material invented by James Pulham (1820–1898) of the firm James Pulham and Son of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire. This artificial material is constructed by bricks and rubble coated with cement. It creates natural looking rocks and crannies and enables ferns and orchids to grow on soil pockets. 



The grotto is built on a natural spring which formed part of the watering system. The little pool retains its level naturally. The interior was originally fed by a water system and there is evidence of artificial lighting.

The grotto was heated by a copper kettle boiler with pipe running outside and around to the greenhouse that currently houses the new tearoom. The dome/lantern on top of the grotto could be raised or lowered according to the temperature. This gave heat and steam to allow the ferns and orchids to grow. The hexagonal dome -

See more on The Grotto Directory which gives more info on the house. 

See also Historic England entry. 


April 9, 2025

Pope's Grotto, Twickenham, London

Pope's Grotto near Twickenham in London has been on my "to do list" for years, but as it has very limited open days I was never able to visit. Then in January 2025 I saw tickets advertised for the year so immediately bought one for 5 April.

Alexander Pope was one of England's most famous poets of his day. Born in 1688, he was a Catholic, and at the time there was religious repression. He also suffered from poor health and physical disabilities. To get away from the religious problems, Pope moved to Twickenham in 1719 and built a villa by the Thames on land he leased - Catholics weren't allowed to own land. He created a landscaped garden and dug a tunnel under the road to connect the house and garden. In 1720 Pope created the famous grotto, inspired by the styles of ancient Greece and Rome.

He was also inspired by the landscaped gardens of other mansions along the Thames, especially those with grottos decorated with shells, stones and crystals. In 1739 Pope visited a spa in Bristol. He liked the sparkling mineral rocks along the Avon Gorge and decided to adorn his grotto with minerals from all over the world. 

The villa was later demolished. A new building was erected in the 1940 and is now a school. English Heritage listed the site in 1952, the remaining traces of the gardens in 1987 and Pope's Grotto Preservation Trust set up in 2014. Since then conservation and preservation work has taken place.

The grotto is located in the Radnor School complex. Across the road is the Alexander Pope Hotel and several roads have "grotto" in their name.
Radnor School and  below the blue signboard is a plaque on the wall by the pavement mentioning the studs -





View of the Thames from inside the school grounds -


The grotto is located through the door shown above. Inside are a few information boards before the main entrance -

Inside on the left and right are 2 chambers with statues. The one on the left -



The entire walls and ceilings are covered with rocks and stones and minerals -


A wall decoration -

And on the ceiling -

The tunnel -


There are alcoves with benches in the tunnel -

This single piece of stal might have come from Wookey Hole, according to 



Old brickwork remains in place behind the walls -




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I have been to Marble Hill grotto which is nearby, and also by the Thames. This grotto has references to Alexander Pope and his grotto.

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Pope's Grotto references :


A video on BBC from 2019

A detailed report on the Londonphile

Ianvisits 2024 report

October 11, 2024

Marble Hill grotto

 Marble Hill is a heritage house and park near East Twickenham in the London Borough of Richmond. The park extends down to the Thames. There is a man made grotto in the park.

I first went to look at the grotto in March 2021 and found it was under renovation. Marble Hill House and the gardens were also going through extensive renovation. There was very little to see at the grotto, see photos on my blog.

My next visit was at the end of Feb 2022, and found there was an archaeological dig in progress at the grotto. The whole area was being excavated. Over the following months, I checked the Marble Hill website but there was no mention of the grotto.

I didn't get around to going back until Oct 2024 and was surprised at the transformation. It looked so different. The first two photos are March 2021, then Feb 2022 and finally Oct 2024 -





The notice board says -
Grotto & 'Rustic Grot'
Henrietta Howard probably started building the grotto at Marble Hill in the 1730s. In 1739, while decorating the grotto, Henrietta wrote "I am at this time over head and ears in Shells". The poet Alexander Pope advised Henrietta on her garden, and this grotto may have been influenced by the one he created at his house nearby.

Grottoes were a popular addition to 18th-century gardens as part of the fashion for recreating the gardens of ancient Rome. The grotto would have been a secluded spot, and may have been used for dining, entertaining and contemplation. 

While Henrietta lived here there were two grottoes, both featured in a poem of 1764 by her neice Anna Chamber. The one you see today was described as a 'charming scene' and surrounded by flowering plants, the other, located to the south, was called a 'rustic grot', enclosed by huge trees and rocks.

The sketch shows Alexander Pope in his grotto in Twickenham, and is attributed to William Kent, 1730s. I still want to visit Pope's grotto, but it has very limited opening times.

I was surprised at how small the grotto is, just a small room. Very different to Scott's grotto I recently visited. It is gated so people can't go in.




Both Scott's and Henrietta's grottoes were decorated with shells. Some of the shells in Henrietta's grotto came from the Caribbean. Traces of the shell imprints -

Research is being carried out in the grotto -

September 3, 2024

Scott's Grotto, Herts

I made a trip to Hertfordshire, which is north of London, in order to see Scott's Grotto. The grotto is located in the town of Ware, up on the hill opposite the railway station. It is classed as the UK's most extensive shell lined grotto. 


Scott's Grotto is in the garden of Amwell House, where the poet John Scott once lived. The house still exists, it is on the main road at the bottom of the hill and has been turned into apartments. The gardens stretched from the house up the hill to where the grotto is, but none of the gardens remain except for the small area around the grotto and summerhouse. Photo of Amwell House taken from Google Streetview

The grotto was built in the 1760s. It was open to visitors and became quite a tourist attraction in the 19th century. It was nearly demolished in the 1960s to make way for housing, but fortunately was saved by the local council in 1974, who have now had it for 50 years. 

It is now open on Saturdays and Bank Holiday Mondays from 2 - 4.30 pm between 1st April and 30th September. It costs just £2 to go in, which is a bargain! View of the grotto from the entrance gate -

I went up to the summer house first, which is above the grotto at the highest part of the garden. There would have been good views over the river valley. The summerhouse is octagonal in shape and was used by Scott for writing his poetry. The summerhouse was extensively renovated after 1990. 


John Scott (1731 - 1783) was a Quaker landowner, his father had moved from London to escape the smallpox. He constructed other summerhouses and seats in the garden. Today there are lots of woollen knitted animals dotted around the garden, which I found rather odd!


The drum in this alcove represents Scott's best remembered poem, The Drum, an anti-war poem written in 1783. 

I walked down to the grotto. Scott started building the grotto with the porch and chamber behind it, when finished in 1764, he called it his Shell Temple. The remainder of the grotto was finished by 1773. 

In the 1990s, the entrance porch and dome, which had been demolished in the 1960s, was rebuilt. 

Inside you are given a brief explanation then left to walk through the grotto on your own. You can borrow a torch as most of it is not lit. The corridors are rather narrow. Most are lined with flint stone and shells, though one long curving corridor is undecorated.
Air tunnel in first chamber -

Looking along a flint lined tunnel -

Passage with seats -

A seat -


This is the grand chamber, which, apart from the impressive shell decorations, is also the only room to be lit -





The Scott's Grotto official page. And see more on IanVisits .