Garden and Park Structures

A guide to outline the selection criteria used when listing garden and park structures.

This guide looks at buildings and other structures found in gardens, parks and indeed designed landscapes of all types from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. They include, among much else, park walls, gates, screens and lodges; statuary; temples and seats of all kinds (often termed follies); structures for the manipulation of water; walled kitchen gardens; and ornamental glasshouses.

Inevitably, there is overlap with other selection guides. Monuments and mausoleums are covered in that for Commemorative Structures. Fountains, hard surfaces and other items are covered in Street Furniture. Some categories of landscape buildings, such as boathouses, are also covered in Sport and Recreation Buildings, and seaside structures appear on Culture and Entertainment Buildings. For stables see the Selection Guide for Suburban and Country Houses, and for home farms (which could be incidents in a landscape as well as an architectural expression of an enlightened and improving landlord) Agricultural Buildings.

This is one of a series of guides which set out some of our approaches to listing buildings. Covering twenty broad categories of building types, they including historical overviews and special considerations for listing, plus select bibliographies. They are primarily intended to develop understanding of listed buildings and structures, and to offer insight into listing decision making.