Caversham Park, Reading, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. 

A country house with the remains of an early 18th century formal garden by Stephen Switzer flanking mid-19th century formal terraces, surrounded by the remains of a landscape park laid out in the 1760s by Lancelot Brown.  

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Caversham Park lies enclosed by the 20th century development of Caversham, once a separate village but now a suburb of Reading. The site, which covers about 40 hectares, is bounded largely by the mid- to late-20th century development of Caversham Park Village, with to the south the open spaces of allotments and Reading Cemetery and Crematorium. The house and park to the north lie on a plateau at the top of a south-east-facing slope. Panoramic views extend southwards from the house and garden terraces at the top of the slope across Caversham and Reading, towards low, distant hills, probably formerly with views of the Thames which lies 2 kilometres to the south.

REFERENCES

C Campbell, Vitruvius Britannicus III, (1725), pl 96

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Berkshire (1966), p 111

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), p 132, pl 35a

M Kift, Life in Old Caversham (1980), pp 56-9

M Kift, Look Back at Caversham (1983), p 19

J D Hunt and P Willis (eds), The Genius of the Place (1988), pp 299, 334

In Search of English Gardens: The Travels of John Claudius Loudon and his wife Jane. (National Trust Classics 1990), p 110

R Bisgrove and J Stoneham, History of the Caversham Park Landscape (1992) [copy on EH file]

J Malpas, Caversham Park and its Owners (1997)

Maps

J Rocque, Map of Berkshire, 1761

T Pride, A topographical map of the Town of Reading and the County adjacent to an extent 0f 10 miles, 1790

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1877

2nd edition published 1914

3rd edition published 1938

OS 25" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1878

2nd edition published 1913

3rd edition published 1932

Description written: September 1998

Edited: March 2000