Garrick's Temple to Shakespeare
What Visitors Say
An absolute gem. One of the best kept secrets on the Thames. We came across this completely by accident trying to find a spot for a socially distant picnic for my birthday. There is plenty of space for kids to explore while you drink in your surroundings. The river was teaming with boats so it was lovely saying hello to people as they floated past! We will be back to explore the centre once it reopens but this area is amazing by itself
Really cute spot by the river. It is a peaceful and tranquil area next to Bushy Park
Just recently discovered this jewel 💎 Very nice folly, lots of benches to hung out and have lunch, beautiful
A Palladian Ionic Temple in an idyllic garden setting aside the Thames, a relic of the 18th.Century Georgian intellectual and aristocratic infatuation with the Arcadian ideal. Open on Summer Sundays, occasional free events, concerts and a venue for hire. Very ambient setting with views from the attractive lawn southwards towards Garrick’s Ait and Hurst Park
Small but informative and an interesting little piece of history. Staged by enthusiastic and knowledgable volunteers.
Highlights
Shakespeare Statue Niche
Garrick commissioned a life-size Shakespeare for the focal niche, making the dramatist an object of neoclassical veneration.Roubiliac’s widely copied image frames Shakespeare as inspired author, not mere playwright-for-hire—key to the 18th-century ‘bardolatry’ Garrick helped launch.
Rotunda interior
Garrick’s Theatre World
Prints, playbills and portraits sketch Garrick’s rise from provincial actor to national celebrity and Drury Lane impresario.Benefit nights, advertising and portrait engravings reveal how the Georgian stage invented modern fame.
Display cases inside the temple
Palladian Design in Miniature
Ionic portico, central cella and balanced proportions translate grand villa language into a garden-scale building.It’s architecture as argument: classical form for ‘classical’ drama.
Exterior and portico
Opening Hours
Fun Facts
Garrick linked house and temple with an underground passage beneath the Hampton Court Road so guests could process to the riverside ‘sanctum’ without crossing traffic at ground level.
The temple was part theatre-museum, part set piece: Garrick staged readings and entertainments here, using the building itself as a prop for Shakespearean celebration.
Roubiliac’s Shakespeare for Garrick became one of the era’s defining images of the Bard; later copies and variants helped standardise the sculptural iconography you still see today.
