Date/Time
Date(s) - 16/10/2025
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Location
Leicester Bowling Club
Timothy Mowl’s lavishly illustrated lecture looks at the ornamental grounds that were laid out around the skirts of Regency houses, their eclecticism – classical, Gothic, Indian, Chinese – reflected in the exuberant gardens that surrounded them. The gardens are characterised by exuberant formal parterres, jewelled island beds of graduated flowers, frothy basket-work borders, shrubberies laced with flowers and over-arching trellises covered with rambling roses, jasmine and clematis; while the lawns, enamelled with spring bulbs, are enlivened with elegant vases, strewn with Chinese barrels for casual alfresco seating, cut with reflecting oval pools backed by specimen shrubs and dramatized by deep-delved grottoes.
Every pleasure ground had its meshed aviary and pheasantry, there were fountains with writhing dolphins, rustic garden seats, thatched and pebbled-floored, Swiss-style bridges, greenhouses and conservatories overflowing with exotics. These flowery paradises were readily accessed from the house via ground-length sash windows, tree-trunked verandas entwined with climbers and conservatories arcing out from the house into the garden. By day they were ablaze with colour and by night, lit by coloured lamps hanging from the trellises and the trees, they sparkled and glittered. Above all, they were created for pleasure and alfresco entertainment.
Timothy Mowl is Emeritus Professor in the History of Architecture and Designed Landscapes at the University of Bristol. He is the author of over 30 books on architectural and garden history. His book on the Regency Garden, from which this lecture is derived, will be published by Reaktion Books in 2026
This should be an interesting evening.
The lecture will be followed by the usual tea/coffee and cake.
Please let Alison (07425138814) know if you can bake a cake for this meeting.
Guests welcome £3.00