Sherlock Holmes fans stage last-ditch attempt to save Conan Doyle's home
A five-year battle to save the former home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has gone to the High Court after campaigners applied for a judicial review of a decision to allow development of the Grade II listed house.
Undershaw, in Hindhead, Surrey, is where the creator of Sherlock Holmes wrote many of his most famous books, including the Hound of the Baskervilles, after he built it in 1897.
Since then it has remained largely unchanged, and retains original features including stained glass windows bearing the Conan Doyle family’s coat of arms.
But after hopes of turning the house into a museum came to nothing, and with the building increasingly suffering from vandalism, Waverley Borough Council granted the current owner permission to turn it into flats.
With the backing of high-profile supporters including Stephen Fry, the author Julian Barnes and the local MP and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, the Undershaw Preservation Trust has now lodged papers at the High Court requesting a judicial review of the planners’ decision....
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Undershaw, in Hindhead, Surrey, is where the creator of Sherlock Holmes wrote many of his most famous books, including the Hound of the Baskervilles, after he built it in 1897.
Since then it has remained largely unchanged, and retains original features including stained glass windows bearing the Conan Doyle family’s coat of arms.
But after hopes of turning the house into a museum came to nothing, and with the building increasingly suffering from vandalism, Waverley Borough Council granted the current owner permission to turn it into flats.
With the backing of high-profile supporters including Stephen Fry, the author Julian Barnes and the local MP and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, the Undershaw Preservation Trust has now lodged papers at the High Court requesting a judicial review of the planners’ decision....