Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Cliff top entrance, comprising platform, terrace walls, tunnel and stairs to the former Rosherville Gardens is a GII Listed structure. Dated 1869 by the firm of James Pulham and Son. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• GARDEN STEPS (Post Medieval to Modern - 1869 AD to 2050 AD)
• GARDEN TERRACE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1869 AD to 2050 AD)
• TUNNEL (Post Medieval to Modern - 1869 AD to 2050 AD)

Full description

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Entrance to pleasure gardens. 1869 by the firm of James Pulham and Son.

MATERIALS: Pulhamite over brick, clunch and plaster.

PLAN: Platform with terrace walls, with staircase leading into a 17 metre long sloping tunnel excavated from the chalk cliffs.

DESCRIPTION: The platform has low cemented terrace walls with cement balustrading with panelled cemented piers, which originally formed statue plinths, retaining some ovolo-moulded decoration. The staircase has tall cement-rendered brick retaining walls and two flights of stairs, the lower at right angles to the upper. The lower flight leads into a steeply-sloping tunnel in the cliffs approximately 17 metres long with a round-headed roof, blank round-headed arcading of 7 bays on each side and a flight of steps. The roof and walls are covered in white plaster with a rough decorative finish. The arch walls are constructed of clunch blocks, except for an arch on the north side, filled-in with C20 brickwork, which originally provided access to an Ionic temple, no longer present. At the base of the flight of steps the tunnel turns northwards at an angle and has a round-headed alcove which probably housed a statue originally. The round-headed exit terminates abruptly approximately 4 metres up the cliff face, following earth clearing which later removed the lower level of the quarry.

HISTORY: This cliff top entrance is the only remaining structure of a pleasure garden, Rosherville Gardens, laid out in 1837 and surviving until 1914. The gardens were built on an excavated chalk pit, owned by Jeremiah Rosher (1765-1848) who saw the potential of chalk excavation by the Thames at Northfleet in the manufacture of cement. From 1830 Rosher also started building a new town, called Rosherville, taking advantage of Gravesend's popularity with Londoners visiting for the day by steamboat along the River Thames. The architect H E Kendall was employed to lay out an esplanade and build a hotel and by 1837 the quay walls were built with a wooden pier. Although the Rosherville Hotel and a few Italianate style houses were built the new town did not develop further.

In 1837 Rosher leased the large excavated chalk pit for 99 years to George Jones, a businessman from Islington, who formed he Kent Zoological and Botanical Gardens Company. Gardens were laid out with a terrace, a bear pit, an archery ground, a lake, a maze, flower beds, statues, a lookout tower on a spur of rock ad a winding path. The gardens were originally intended to appeal to wealthy, cultured visitors, but as these never came in sufficient numbers, Mr Jones was forced to lower the prices and import more varied entertainment. From 1842 the gardens were renamed Rosherville Gardens and became an enormous success. Visitors arrived by steamboat, landing at the nearby Rosherville Pier, entering the gardens through the original entrance a short walk from the pier on the north-east side of the gardens.

In 1869 a new entrance was made from the London Road to the south of the gardens and steps inside a cliff tunnel led down to the gardens below. The firm of James Pulham and Son is recorded as having completed work at Rosherville Gardens in 1869 and the cliff entrance includes Pulhamite, their artifical stone. A C19 photograph of the cliff top entrance shows a large platform at the top of the cliff with balustrading and piers, which form the plinths for four classical style statues and urns flanking the staircase into the tunnel. A circular temple with domed roof and Ionic columns is shown at a height midway down the flight of steps. Lower down is the cambered lower entrance giving access to the gardens in the excavated quarry at the base of the chalk cliffs.

In 1872 George Jones died and the gardens passed into the hands of the Rosherville Gardens Company Ltd. In 1878 the sinking of the Princess Alice paddle steamer with the loss of more than 640 people stated the decline of the gardens, which were also affected by affordable trips to the seaside by railway. However, in 1886 a railway station, Rosherville Halt, was constructed nearby, specifically to bring visitors to Rosherville Gardens, who entered through the 1869 south entrance.

In 1900 Rosherville Gardens went bankrupt and re-opened folllowing changes in 1903. Despite these changes Rosherville Gardens continued to lose money and closed as a pleasure gardens in 1913. In 1914 they were the location of a film made by the Magnet Film Company, which planned to make more films there, but the gardens were closed completely by the First World War. In 1924 five acres of land were sold to T Henley's Cable Works, which had occupied the land between the gardens and the Thames since 1906. In 1939 Henley's bought the rest of the land and the site of the gardens was completely cleared and the clifftop entrance sealed off. Recently all C20 building on the site of the Rosherville Gardens have also been completely removed.

The cliff top entrance to Rosherville Gardens is first shown on the 1897 Ordnance Survey map. This shows the shape of the terrace walls and the staircase leading into the tunnel. A covered walkway is shown leading up to the clifftop entrance. By the 1908 map the cliff top entrance is still shown, but not the covered walkway.By the 1939 map the staircase is no longer shown.

SOURCES: Smith, Lynda 'The Place to Spend a Happy Day'. 2006. Published by the Gravesend Historical Society.
Downing, Sarah Jane 'The English Pleasure Garden 1660-1860.' Shire Library. 2009. Ps 59, 60 and 62.
'Durability Guaranteed. Pulhamite rockwork-Its conservation and repair'. English Heritage 2008.
http://discovergravesham.co.uk/northfleet/rosherville-gardens.html Accessed 29/07/2010.
Hitching, Claude. The Pulham Legacy. Claude@hitching.net Accessed 10/11/10

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: * Architectural interest: the structure was constructed by the well known firm of James Pulham and Son, partly in Pulhamite, and includes decorative balustrading, a staircase and a seventeen metre long tunnel excavated from the chalk cliffs with round-headed arcading, an alcove and unusual rough plaster decoration to the tunnel. * Degree of intactness and alteration: the front terrace wall has been lost, also some balustrading and the statues. However, the other terrace walls with some balustrading, the staircase and tunnel survive. * Rarity: This is the only remaining structure of Rosherville Pleasure Gardens. Structures in pleasure gardens are rare survivals because they were often ephemeral, and Rosherville Gardens is one of only three Victorian pleasure gardens nationally mentioned in a recent publication on pleasure gardens. (1)

Conservation of the stairway and the cave was undertaken by Gravesham Borough Council in 2018, it noted that The upper part of the Fountain Walk Stairway is extensively overgrown and this vegetation has encroached on the pillars and balustrades to the extent that only a very small section can be seen. The remainder of the stairway is in quite good general condition and would require very little work. The stairway and associated structures appear to have deteriorated very little since closure in the early years of the 20th Century. The Hermit’s Cave is quite stable and no further artificial works are required to maintain this stability. The graffiti and carvings within the cave are quite well preserved and of historical interest. (2)

<1> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<2> Oxford Archaeology, 2017, Conservation of Stairway and Hermit's Cave, Northfleet, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE52890.

Sources and further reading

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