Fanhams Hall
Photo: Glyn Baker / CC BY-SA 2.0, modified.
Overview
The Japanese Garden at Fanhams Hall is an extensive early Edwardian Japanese water garden within the grounds of Fanhams Hall, near Ware in Hertfordshire. Historic England describes Fanhams Hall as a country house with formal gardens of 1898–1901 and an informal Japanese water garden of 1901–1905. The garden includes ponds, bridges, Japanese buildings, stone lanterns, a Fuji mound, mature Japanese maples and a wisteria walk.
History
Fanhams Hall was substantially rebuilt for Richard Benyon Page Croft between 1898 and 1901 by architect W. Wood Bethell, who also laid out the formal gardens near the house. The Japanese garden was then laid out at some distance from the house between 1901 and 1905 by Professor Suzuki, to designs by Mr Inaka. Historic England also notes that an Austrian House from the Paris Exhibition of 1900 and two Japanese buildings were installed in the Japanese Garden.
Design features
The garden is a large Japanese-style water garden with a serpentine wisteria pergola, ponds, artificial rockwork, wooden bridges, a two-storey Japanese tea house called Sei-Shin-tei or “House of the Pure Heart,” a zig-zag bridge, a small shrine-like structure called Azuma-Inari, a Green Bridge, stone lanterns, Japanese maples and a symbolic Fuji-yama mound. Historic England specifically notes the Japanese House, Zig-Zag Bridge, Small House / Fox Shrine, Green Bridge and Austrian House as key features within the garden.