Paradise Belvedere
PARADISE BELVEDERE, PARADISE DRIVE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1391883
- Date first listed:
- 22-Feb-2007
- List Entry Name:
- Paradise Belvedere
- Statutory Address:
- PARADISE BELVEDERE, PARADISE DRIVE
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1391883
- Date first listed:
- 22-Feb-2007
- List Entry Name:
- Paradise Belvedere
- Statutory Address 1:
- PARADISE BELVEDERE, PARADISE DRIVE
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:
- PARADISE BELVEDERE, PARADISE DRIVE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- East Sussex
- District:
- Eastbourne (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Park:
- South Downs
- National Grid Reference:
- TV 59481 98279
Details
623/0/10073 PARADISE DRIVE 22-FEB-07 Paradise Belvedere
II Gazebo. C18, probably second quarter. Faced in knapped flint with red brick and stone dressings. Symmetrical 3-bay structure designed in the Palladian manner with pedimented central bay and round-arched seating alcove. Lower, recessed flanking wings have blind arches and upswept parapets with scotia profiles. Impost bands to arches. Built to command a prospect over the parkland to Compton Place (qv).
HISTORY: The construction date and designer of the Paradise Belvedere are unknown, but it may have been built by Spencer Compton, younger son of the Earl of Northampton, ennobled in 1728 as Lord Wilmington. Compton bought the estate in 1724, changing its name from Bourne Place to Compton Place. He remodelled the existing Elizabethan house c1726 to the design of the Palladian architect Colen Campbell, whom he commissioned through his acquaintance with Lord Burlington, the leading exponent of the C18 Palladian revival. The grounds were worked on by Bridgeman between 1728-38. A folly is recorded as being built c1740, but it is unclear whether this was the same structure. However, the building's austere Palladianism is consistent with the date range of Wilmington's occupation.
SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Of special architectural interest as an elegant, well-proportioned C18 garden building in the Palladian taste, and historic interest for its association with Compton Place, whose grounds are included in the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. While the parkland in which the Belvedere stands, now a golf course, is outside the registered area, the building's aesthetic function within the broader historic landscape as both a viewpoint and eyecatcher remains legible. It thus has important group value with the Grade I listed house and registered garden.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 496218
- 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 26-Jun-2026 at 07:27:10.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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