History of Summerhouses
Summerhouse
are as old as the art of gardening itself, Common in
Egyptian gardens over five thousand years ago to ancient Rome they all had
their summerhouses. In 62 AD Pliny the Younger describes two of his residences
he owned in a letter to a friend, one of them called Tusci in the foothills of
the Apennines contained a garden house shaded by plane trees and a villa in Como
were he had a gazebo built to gaze onto his neighbours grounds to watch their
incomings and outgoings.
With the
decline of the Roma Empire during the dark ages and the early part of the
middle ages, the interest in garden buildings declined in Europe. But in the
East at the same time the garden building was flourishing. It is said in the
Koran that the Day of Judgment will take place “in gardens of pleasure” and the
Moslems built beautiful gardens and summerhouses for this.
In Persia the gardens were layout in four sections with water channels used to divide the sections. Where the channels crossed there would be a pool or a small hill with a summerhouse on it. Built from marble and precious metals the garden shelters varied widely. Some were just covered tents with rugs to sit on, to two storied buildings. Others built across pools of water so the water flowing underneath would keep the marble floor cool in the heat of the day.
As the
western world began to emerge from the Middle Ages into the renaissance period
ornate garden shelters returned in popularity and no proper garden was without
a summerhouse of some kind.
In the late 1700’s Chinese design summerhouses swept England and Europe were all the rage in Anglo Chinese gardens, by the time Queen Victoria came to the throne the influence was more to the Gothic design in summerhouses and ardors, equally popular was the rustic garden house fashioned from roots and branches.
These
small structures go by many names such as gazebos, screen houses, pavilions,
arbors, pergolas, teahouses, grottos to name but a few. Whatever we call them
today they are commonly used as a place to entertain, to relax, a retreat for
the summer heat something we have doing for many years and for many more to
come. Whether it be a small covered garden seat for a spot of quiet reading or
a large gazebo or summerhouse for entertaining and family gatherings, the
summerhouse has come into its own more recently as a home office away from the
house.
