The Grotto Located Within the Grounds of the Former Grove Estate
THE GROTTO LOCATED WITHIN THE GROUNDS OF THE FORMER GROVE ESTATE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1390752
- Date first listed:
- 10-Oct-2003
- List Entry Name:
- The Grotto Located Within the Grounds of the Former Grove Estate
- Statutory Address:
- THE GROTTO LOCATED WITHIN THE GROUNDS OF THE FORMER GROVE ESTATE
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1390752
- Date first listed:
- 10-Oct-2003
- List Entry Name:
- The Grotto Located Within the Grounds of the Former Grove Estate
- Statutory Address 1:
- THE GROTTO LOCATED WITHIN THE GROUNDS OF THE FORMER GROVE ESTATE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- THE GROTTO LOCATED WITHIN THE GROUNDS OF THE FORMER GROVE ESTATE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- Harrow (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 16274 93683
Details
1157/0/10068 The Grotto located within the grounds 10-OCT-03 of the former Grove Estate
II Grotto. Circa 1790. Brick inner core with flint and random stone facing to exterior, including conglomerates, sandstones, marble and tufa; scallop shell decoration to interior dome. The grotto, with an inner chamber, circular in plan, reached via a lobby, is set within an artificial mound of earth. The grotto is entered through a recessed arched doorway, set into the tripartite front. A circular hole at the top admits light to the circular subterranean chamber, which has a deliberately primitive altar opposite the entrance, formed from a heavy slab of Hertfordshire sandstone carried on squat legs, carved to represent arrow-filled quivers. The brick walls are plain, while the brick inner surface of the domed roof retains shell decoration comprising 12 rows of red cockle shells; impressions in the mortar at the top of the wall show that another row of shells ran around at this level too. The floor is of beaten earth, and shows no sign of any decorative treatment (ie pebbles, knuckle bones). The lantern may originally have been glazed. HISTORY: this grotto, a highly characteristic survival of mid-Georgian landscape architecture, belonged to the garden laid out around The Grove (demolished 1979). Re 'The Ambulator' in 1820, it was probably built on the orders of a German City merchant named Fierville, who possessed the estate between 1782 and 1790 when he was succeeded by Dr Alexander von Mayersbach. The grotto stood within a Wilderness: close by was a very unusual replica of Rousseau's grave on the Ile des Peupliers at Ermenonville; elsewhere on the estate was a hermitage and a mock-tumulus. The altar is an unusual feature, and may have been dedicated to Diana, Goddess of Hunting.The grotto is a reminder of a largely-vanished romantic landscape, and is symbolic of the earlier history of Stanmore as a place of genteel retirement.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 491324
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 23-Jun-2026 at 22:37:21.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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