I have been planning to go to Claremont for ages.  What I hadn’t realised is that by far the best of the surviving buildings – Vanbrugh’s brick belvedere – is not actually part of the landscape gardens looked after by the National Trust, but part of the estate of Claremont Fan Court School which now occupies the Capability Brown/Henry Holland house which replaced Vanbrugh’s original palatial mansion after it had been demolished by Lord Clive. So, you can only see it from a distance (the telephoto is deceptive).

Built in 1717, it maybe marks the beginning of Vanbrugh’s half-serious, half-playful medievalism which led him to design Vanbrugh Castle for himself two years later.  It is perhaps not surprising that Jonathan Swift likened Vanbrugh’s design style to a child’s because he uses very simple brick forms in a highly imaginative way.  Swift intended it as an insult, but Vanbrugh may have taken it as a compliment:-