The Gothic Ruin was designed by James Wyatt, reportedly in collaboration with Princess Elizabeth, the seventh child of George and Queen Charlotte.[4] Elizabeth was a talented amateur artist.[5] A pencil sketch of the ruins of 1831 by William Alfred Delamotte, formerly in a collection of drawings of the Frogmore Estate put together by Elizabeth, was returned to the Royal Collection in 1984.[6]
In 1840, Frogmore was inherited by the Duchess of Kent and, following her death in 1861, by her daughter, Queen Victoria.[2] The estate became a favoured, almost sacred,[7] retreat; after burying her mother in a mausoleum overlooking the lake, the Queen commissioned another, the Royal Mausoleum, for her husband Albert, Prince Consort and for herself, after Albert's death in 1861.[b][4]
During her long widowhood, when she rarely visited London, Victoria spent much of her time at Windsor and at Frogmore.[8] She undertook further building work in the gardens, employing Samuel Sanders Teulon to construct a teahouse,[9] and had the Indian Kiosk installed.[10][c] Victoria also engaged Thomas Willement to redecorate the Gothic Ruin.[4] Victoria used the ruin as an outdoor breakfast room in the warmer summer months.[12]
Description
The Gothic Ruin is a single-storey building clad in castellated battlements to give the appearance of the ruin of a much older structure. It is an early example of the Gothic Revival style.[13] The exact date of construction is uncertain; the Historic England listing suggests the 1790s,[14] and other sources ascribe it to the very late 18th century.[15] The Gothic Ruin is a Grade II* listed building.[16]
Public access
Frogmore Gardens are opened to the public on a limited number of days each year, under the National Garden Scheme.[17]
Footnotes
^Charlotte’s ambition was to create a Paradis Terrestre, a secluded enclave enabling an escape from the rituals of court and modelled on the, almost contemporary, Hameau de la Reine at Versailles.[2]
^As well as the royal mausolea, Frogmore is the site of the Royal Burial Ground, last resting place for a host of Victoria’s lesser descendants.[4]
^Geoffrey Tyack, Simon Bradley and Nikolaus Pevsner, in their Berkshire volume of the Buildings of England series, describe the kiosk as a “pretty, octagonal domed pavilion of white marble”,[4] while the garden historian George Plumptre notes its “exquisite oriental symmetry”.[11]
