[95340] Stowe : The Temple of Friendship

Stowe Landscape Gardens, Buckinghamshire.

The National Trust.

The Temple of Friendship, 1739.

By James Gibbs (1682-1754).

For Richard Temple, 1st Viscount Cobham (1675-1749).

Grade l listed.

 

The Temple of Friendship is located in the south-east corner of the garden.. It was badly damaged by fire in 1840 and remains a ruin. Built as a pavilion to entertain Lord Cobham's friends it was originally decorated with murals by Francesco Sleter including on the ceiling Britannia, the walls having allegorical paintings symbolising friendship, justice and liberty. There was a series of ten white marble busts on black marble pedestals around the walls of Cobham (this bust with that of Lord Westmoreland is now in the V&A Museum) and his friends. All the busts were sold in 1848.

 

The building consisted of a square room rising through two floors surmounted by a pyramidal roof with a lantern. The front has a portico of four Tuscan columns supporting a pediment, the sides have arcades of one arch deep by three wide also supporting pediments. The arcades and portico with the wall behind are still standing.

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