ABSTRACT
The Picturesque landscape aesthetic which developed in Britain from the mid-eighteenth century was particularly associated with the English Lake District and its tourism. 2 Claife Station (a station is defined in Picturesque terms as a viewing point) was a seminal element in the earliest days of tourism in the Lakes, designed with a single purpose – to facilitate and enhance the viewing of the dramatic scenery. Dozens of natural viewpoints were identified around the Lake District forming a now largely forgotten system of stations. There were five such stations around Windermere first described in the pioneering guide book to the Lake District published by Fr Thomas West in 1778. 3 Of these Claife was the most important and sophisticated, principally because it was the only one provided with a building, or pavilion, which served as a viewing platform for tourists. The station occupied a rock platform above the western shore of Windermere, at the point where the ferry arrived from Bowness, and was framed against a backdrop of yew and oak woodland. Although now a ruin (Figure 10.1), the once flamboyant viewing pavilion became an eye-catcher from the lake and its rugged and landscaped surrounds. Built in the 1790s, the two-storey pavilion, in the form of a free-standing octagonal tower, was designed, probably in the Neo-Classical style, by the renowned and prolific northern architect John Carr (1723–1807). Carr went on to design extensions to John Plaw’s extraordinary cylindrical villa on nearby Belle Isle for John and Isabella Curwen (see Menuge, this volume) and in the 1800s it was John Curwen who, having acquired Claife, modified Carr’s pavilion in the Gothic style with the addition of crenellated screen walls and a bay window. This window in the first-floor drawing room was jewelled with coloured glass borders, each colour intended to evoke a particular season or weather phenomenon in the surrounding scenery. Sensory experiences were enhanced by the provision of an Aeolian harp. Claife Station's ruined pavilion awaiting conservation by the National Trust https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315555874/b962c4b3-5d8e-4503-87a1-2ad0ac717fd2/content/fig10_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Source: © Jason Wood.
