The grade II* listed Doric Temple, overlooking the Round Pond, is one of the oldest buildings in Gunnersbury Park.

It is built of red brick with a stucco portico. The front has four Doric columns topped by a white wooden pediment decorated with ox skulls and garlands. The niches either side of the doorway originally contained classical statues. A drawing exists which shows three niches but no door, suggesting that this may originally have been a frontage grafted on to the brick building.

The original building probably dates from the mid eighteenth century (see below). This was a rectangular structure, with a cellar and attic storey linked by a spiral staircase inside the front door. There may have been a fireplace in the front wall of the main floor and another below in the cellar. The projection at the back is a later addition and with it came a second staircase and another door and window. The brickwork suggests a date of about 1800 for this development. At a third stage the upper floor and stairs were abandoned and the ceiling raised. This is probably when the present fireplaces were added and the interior decorated with five neo-classical bas-reliefs (four remain) in the style of Flaxman.

The building was restored in 1975 with the help of the Temple Trust.

The Architect
It is not known for certain who designed the Temple, but there are several possibilities.

It may have been built for MP and art collector Henry Furnese, who lived in the original Palladian house at Gunnersbury from 1739-61. A report of the Estate of Henry Furnese and his sister Elizabeth Pierce, from the 1750s, refers to a Temple, which contained 'a plaister statue of a dancing faun orange trees orange tubs goldfish and a swan'.

Furnese is known to have employed William Kent, as his bank account shows a payment to Kent of £55 in April 1743. Kent's letters show that he was on social terms with Furnese and stayed with him on at least three occasions in 1744 and 1745. It is probable that it was Kent who created the informal gardens that were the fashion of the day, using ornamental pavilions and temples, and that it was he who created the Round Pond. The effect from the Temple of looking over a sheet of water is very typical of Kent.

Alternatively, the Temple may have been built, or re-built, by Princess Amelia, who bought Gunnersbury from Furnese. It is said that she employed Thomas Ripley to carry out work here in the late 1750s, before the official purchase. She could also have employed William Chambers to build or alter the Temple in the 1760s, when he was working for her relatives at Kew.

The fourth possibility is John Oldfield, an obscure figure, called 'my surveyor' in Princess Amelia's will. Certainly there exists a drawing of the front of the Temple, signed by Oldfield, although it shows three niches and no door.

Uses of the Temple
In the late 18th century the building was known as the Dairy, and contained, according to sale particulars of 1787, 'a Cream-Room set with Galley-Tiles and Marble Sideboards, a Churning Room, China Room, Kitchen, and two Chambers'. This was probably where Princess Amelia entertained her friends and played at being simple milkmaids.

After Princess Amelia's death the site passed through various hands and the Temple was leased as a dwelling. In 1806 it was taken over by Alexander Copland, who built the present Large Mansion in 1802. Copland was a prominent builder and partner of Henry Holland. Within a few years the Temple was converted into a billiard room. It is likely that the ceiling was raised and the fireplaces added at this stage.

When the Rothschild family owned the site (1835-1925) it may have been used as a synagogue, but there is no clear evidence for this.