Replica Attractions by Simon Heptinstall
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Tutankhamun's Tomb
Opposite the chip shop in Dorchester High Street is one of the greatest treasures of the ancient world. The Tutankhamun Exhibition houses a full-sized re-creation of the 3,500-year-old burial chambers of the Egyptian pharaoh complete with hieroglyphics, artefacts and “authentic smells”. Everything is a facsimile, from a grotesque mummified body to spectacular jewels copied from originals by craftsmen using real gold and semi-precious stones. The adjoining shop meanwhile does a brisk trade in souvenir sphinx heads, mummy playing cards and Tut tea towels. Even the building housing the exhibition is a re-creation. It was once a Catholic church which was dismantled, moved 20 miles and re-assembled on the High Street.
Tutankhamun Exhibition: High Street West, Dorchester, Dorset, tel: 01395 269571 http://www.tutankhamun-exhibition.co.uk/
Nepalese Temple
Just off the romantically-named H5 road through this grid-patterned city is a little piece of England that will always be... Nepal. This is where monks and nuns built the first Buddhist pagoda in the west in 1980 a few hundred yards from their temple. Sacred relics of Lord Buddha are buried within the pagoda The Pagoda has been liken to a giant toilet brush handle by the less spiritual but even they must confess that the temple, garden and 1,000 imported Japanese cedar and cherry trees are one of the most picturesque parts of Milton Keynes.
Nepalese Pagoda: Access from V10, Milton Keynes Open all year. Tel: 01908 663652. http://mkbuddhism.tripod.com/peace_pagoda.htm
The Pyramid
Not as big as Gaza maybe, but the huge sandstone pyramid in Brightling, Sussex does dominate the tiny village of Brightling. Eccentric and also enormous local squire John 'Hippopotamus' Fuller built his own mausoleum in the churchyard next to his mansion in true pharaoh style... preparing for his burial 24 years before he died in 1834.
Some locals believed 'Mad Jack' was buried as if dressed for dinner, wearing a top hat holding a bottle of claret. Another rumour is that the wealthy landowner advertised for a hermit to live in the pyramid while he was still alive. The successful applicant would have to refrain from cutting their hair, wash or speak to anyone for a year at the end of which Fuller would have "made him a gentleman for life". Evidently there were no takers. Today visitors can just peer through an iron grille across the entrance.
John Fuller's Pyramid: Brightling churchyard, between Battle and Burwash, West Sussex
The Sistine Chapel
From the outside, the pebble-dashed English Martyrs Catholic Church looks like an anonymous part of modern suburbia among conifers in Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex. But inside is a marvel of English eccentricity - a complete hand-painted copy of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Church regular Gary Bevans visited Rome in 1987 and was so inspired by the Sistine Chapel that he began painting a replica on the 3,500 square-foot plywood roof back home.
While Michelangelo had a team of labourers to help, Gary only had the occasional assistance of a friend to help him move the scaffolding. Gary’s masterpiece was sponsored by a local solicitors’ firm. The task took six years.
“He thought it was about the right shape so he’d have a go,” explained parish priest Father Enda <<>> Naughton. “He’s a signwriter by trade but we discovered he’s an artist by nature.”
English Martyrs Catholic Church: Compton Ave, Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex 01903 242624 EnglishMartyrsGoring@tinyworld.co.uk http://www.dabnet.org/goring.htm Open every day except Monday 10 - 4 (but not during services)
Totem Pole
Among the trees at the southern end of Virginia Water Great Park is 100ft of Red Indian tribal ritual transplanted into the Home Counties. The huge totem pole was sculpted by one the greatest totem craftsmen Mungo Martin, Chief of the Kwakiuti from Vancouver Island. Mungo carved the whole thing from a single red cedar which was then transported to Britain and erected in 1958 to mark the 100th birthday of British Columbia. It is one foot tall for each of the years. Totem poles tell family histories and this features favourite Kwakiuti personalities like the ‘man with a large hat’, the ‘old man’ and the unfortunately-named ‘halibut man’.
Indian totem pole: Great Park, Virginia Water, Surrey http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/info/totem.html Main car park on the A30 between Sunningdale and Egham. Walks to totem pole signposted.
Swiss Cottage
Queen Victoria gave her nine children their own playhouse in the grounds of Osborne House on the Isle of Wight by shipping over a complete cottage from Switzerland. The nine kids played 'house' by cooking meals for their regal mum and dad and tending their own little vegetable plots outside.
Osborne House (English Heritage), Isle of Wight Tel: 01983 200022
Maori Meeting House
Nestled under the trees in the traditional English garden of a stately home in Surrey is a brightly painted wooden house that is as important a piece of Maori history as you’ll find by travelling to the other side of the world. Save yourself the long journey - take an afternoon trip to the bit of New Zealand that stands in Clandon Park near Guildford instead.
The Maoris call the building ‘Hinemihi’ and it was bought as a souvenir for £50 by William Hillier, 4th Earl of Onslow when he was New Zealand’s Governor General 100 years ago. He shipped Hinemihi home to be erected on his lawn.
But to Maoris it was more than just a garden ornament for a wealthy colonialist. The house had been built by noted craftsman Aporo Wharekaniwha in the village of Te Wairoa on North Island. The village was wiped out in a volcanic eruption in 1886 - the only survivors were those who sheltered in Hinemini.
So Clandon has become a place of pilgrimage for Maoris. Ancestors of the survivors make the round trip, dawn ceremonies are held at the house and members of the London Maori Club hold traditional meals there.
In comparison, Clandon's other world sight, the sunken Dutch garden, appears to have no spiritual significance. Angry raiding parties of Dutch garden lovers are unlikely to be seen digging up the colourless formal rectangle of hedges and paths.
Maori house and Dutch garden: Clandon Park (National Trust), West Clandon, Surrey, tel: 01483 222482. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/ Garden is open all year on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. And it’s free.
Italian Village
It looks like an ancient village nestling on the Italian coast, yet the strange folly was built this century on a peninsular in Cardigan Bay, North Wales. Architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis spent 50 years on his pet project by nabbing as many bits as he could from dilapidated buildings. Sir Clough said he built it “using a gay, light-opera sort of approach”. The result is 50 buildings round a central piazza, including a Campanile bell tower and gilded Pantheon dome. Pastel-painted Mediterranean loggias with terracotta tiles are dotted around pathways down to the harbour. Unfortunately when you get to the water’s edge what greets you is not the sparkling blue Med... but a murky brown tidal estuary.
PORTMEIRION Gwynedd, LL48 6ET, Cymru/Wales Tel: 01766 770228, Email:enquiries@portmeirion-village.com http://www.portmeirion-village.com/village/main.english.htm Open 9.30 to 5.30. Tel: 01766 770228
Florentine Tower
Avoid Florence’s queues - head instead for West Yorkshire. The 220ft clock tower of Bradford City Hall is a perfect copy of the Campanile bell tower of Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The Victorian tower dominates the city but isn’t open to the public. It was built by wool barons were desperate to out-do rival town halls in Leeds and Halifax. Latin replicas are also dotted round the city; the Devere warehouse in Vicar Lane is a copy of an Italian Palazzo and The Telegraph and Argus building replicates an Italian merchant’s palace.
Bradford City Hall, tourist information 01274 753678
Norwegian Church
It looks like something transplanted from rural Scandinavia or backwoods New England but the wooden Norwegian Church is now the centrepiece of glitzy Cardiff Bay. It was originally built by Scandinavian sailors in 1867 in what was then Tiger Bay coal port. But it fell into disrepair and was deconsecrated in 1970. The church was rescued after a campaign by author Roald Dahl who was baptised there. Princess Martha Louise of Norway cut the ribbon in 1992. The Norwegian flag still flies alongside the stumpy black Nordic spire but it now houses a cafe serving Norwegian dishes.
Norwegian Church, Harbour Drive, Cardiff Admission free, open daily 10am-4pm. Tel: 01222 454899.
Indian Temple
Forget the Taj Mahal by moonlight - head for Neasden at noon instead. England’s traditional Indian temple is Shri Swaninarayan Mandir, an enormous exotic sight in suburban north London. Our Mandir was completed three years ago, the first traditional Hindu temple in Europe. It was built using ancient Hindu rules so 5,000 tons of stone was shipped to India to be carved by 1,500 craftsmen... then transported to Britain to be assembled by more than 1,000 volunteers like a giant jigsaw. Visitors can see intricately carved shrines and balconies, nearly 200 pillars and six domes.
Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Neasden Open 9 - 6pm daily 0208-965-2651
Japanese Temple
Tatton Park (National Trust) in Knutsford, Cheshire has a garden built by Japanese workmen shipped over in 1910. It recreates in miniature the mountainous terrain of Japan, complete with a Shinto Temple also bought over from Japan.
Various opening times and prices. Tel: 01565 654822