Splored with SK, Jane Doe, Trog and Peaches
Many thanks to SK for lending me an exterior shot, I actually forgot to take one
Undershaw Manor was the home of Sherlock Holmes writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the house was built in 1897 and was designed by Doyle himself.
Doyle chose an elevated spot for his new home because he believed that the fresh breezes of this hilly part of Surrey would cure his poor wife, Louise, of her ill health. Louise suffered from the terrible disease of consumption (or as we now call it, TB).
It was at Undershaw that Doyle wrote may of his famous Sherlock Holmes novels including The Hound of the Baskervilles and entertained friends such as Bram Stoker (author of Dracula) and J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)
Undershaw was converted into a hotel not long after Doyle sold it until it sclosed in 2004 and it has been derelict ever since
There is a massive campaign to save Undershaw, it is currently owned by an investment company and there have been a string of legal battles over the building
Planning applications and objections, the preservationist want to preserve it as a museum to Conan Doyle but the local council have said they don't have the money to purchase it (£1.5m in 2010)
During December 2010, the Undershaw Preservation Trust instigated judicial review proceedings at the High Court of Justice, in an attempt to overturn the decision by Waverley Borough Council to permit the conversion of Undershaw into flats.
On May 30, 2012, the High Court overturned the redevelopment of Undershaw due to legal flaws. The council's decisions to grant planning permission and listed building consent must be quashed.
Futher info on the Undershaw Preservation Trust can be found here
http://www.saveundershaw.com/
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