Eyecatcher

Croome D'Abitot church was built as an eyecatcher by 'Capability' Brown when he landscaped the park for the 6th Earl of Coventry in the 1750s.

An eyecatcher (also referred to as eye catcher or eye-catcher) is a decorative structure usually built at a focal point in an English landscape park or on the grounds of a stately home to attract visual attention or otherwise punctuate the vista with a sense of drama.

Eyecatchers are sometimes natural items (such as large stones or tree arrangements) but they can also be buildings constructed in a particular style. These structures often have no specific purpose and in terms of design, they tend to mimic styles that are out of context - both geographically and historically.

Examples include:

• Sham ruins.
• Follies.
• Ornamental bridges.
• Faux temples.
• Conservatories.
• Grottoes.
• Obelisks.

Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown was an English landscape architect of the 1700s who designed more than 170 parks and came to be celebrated as ‘England’s greatest gardener’. Brown’s style is characterised by the smooth grass of a garden leading straight up to a house, trees scattered in groups, and serpentine lakes formed by small rivers. His designs often included eyecatchers, which were meant to draw the viewer’s eye across the horizon.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Capability Brown.
• Clairvoyee.
• Folly.
• Garden.
• Gazebo.
• Hard landscape.
• Landscape design.
• Monopteros.
• Strawberry Hill House.
• Wimpole Gothic Tower conservation.
• The English Folly: the edifice complex.