East Horsley, Horsley Towers: The Cloisters and Chapel

In 1859, working with the same materials and in a fanciful style, Lovelace built a system of ‘cloisters’ on the north side of Barry’s original building. These cloisters were possibly made to serve the same function as the Tudor ‘long galleries’ for recreational use in inclement weather. They were at first floor level, looking down on the kitchen courtyard, and had an elaborate system of brick vaulting supported by columns made of drainpipes all painted in polychrome to look like brick. At one end of the cloisters was an ornate and stylized chapel with the same brick vaulting and drainpipe columns done in polychrome. There was decoration in blue and white tiles around the altar

and walls, floor tiles containing the arms of various branches of the Lovelace family, Italian paintings between the spandrels and a memorial tablet to his first wife. The style of this chapel can best be described as ‘busy’! Needless to say, it was never consecrated!

The kitchen yard lay to the north of the house and a tunnel ran under the garden to the right of the picture, connecting up with the stable yard where all the workshops and cottages for the gardeners and grooms were. The cloisters can be seen running round the kitchen yard.