The glasshouses were originally built between 1790-1794 to a design by Sir John Soane, but were demolished by a bomb in November 1941. The magnificent glasshouses on the wall of the garden you see today were rebuilt in 2000 and externally they are based on Soanes eighteenth century design, found in the Soane Museum in London, the only alteration has been to give wheelchair access to the central show house. 

The frame is painted green, as the original would have been and is made of Western Red Cedar.  Glass produced by British manufacture was too uniform in appearance for an copy of an eighteenth century glass and so the glass used was imported from Poland and if you look closely you can see the variation in its surface across the different panes.

Each year 20,000 Bedding plants for the Parterre and Walled Garden will be "grown on" in the Glasshouses with the central section open as a show house. 

The completed glasshouse August 2000

Framework for the central display house of the glasshouse May 2000

Timber for the glasshouse in the workshop May 2000

Gardeners Cottage & site of the glasshouse November 1999

Excavations uncovered the original grapevine root holes