Sherlock's Home Read online

  Title Page

  SHERLOCK’S HOME

  The Empty House

  Compiled By Sherlockology

  Edited By Steve Emecz

  Publisher Information

  First edition published in 2012

  © Copyright 2012

  Digital edition converted and

  Distributed in 2012 by

  Andrews UK Limited

  www.andrewsuk.com

  The right of Sherlockology and Steve Emecz to be identified as the editors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998. Copyright is retained by the individual contributors.

  All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without express prior written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted except with express prior written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damage.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and not of MX Publishing.

  Published in the UK by MX Publishing

  335 Princess Park Manor, Royal Drive,

  London, N11 3GX

  www.mxpublishing.com

  Cover design by www.sherlockology.com

  About This Book

  When we first started Sherlockology it was down to our personal love of what was at the time a remarkable three episode BBC drama, created by the enormously talented Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Each member of the team had previous interest in arguably the greatest fictional detective of all time and varied knowledge of previous incarnations and the canon from which they were based. As time went on however, like Alice in Wonderland, we began to venture down the rabbit hole into the world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes.

  What we discovered on our journey was that Sherlock Holmes is a character like no other. He does not simply live on the pages of a book, nor is he only brought to life by the various and numerous actors who have portrayed him. He is a living breathing, flesh and blood person, who becomes more real and more relevant in the real world around us, regardless of the era, the longer the acquaintance you share with him. Sherlock Holmes, Dr. John Watson, Mrs. Hudson, Mycroft Holmes, and the rest of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters, have become far more than the invention of a talented author. To us and to many before, and no doubt after, they have become life- long friends.

  Were it not for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introducing us, both literary history and our own imaginations, would be much duller indeed. He gave us the most unique type of hero, he gave us someone to believe in, and for that, the very least we can do is to ensure the creator of such an individual, has a legacy to live on for future generation. They will discover, as we have, the joy of meeting Sherlock Holmes.

  That legacy lives in the pages of the canon, but also in the bricks and mortar of Undershaw. This was the building in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, designed, built, entertained his fellow authors and most importantly wrote more cases for Sherlock Holmes. For the house to be lost, would be an unimaginable travesty, and this book is a product of the fight to preserve it. Those who have contributed to the contents fight, the hundreds who submitted entries fight and most importantly, you the purchaser of this book fight with us.

  We would like to extend a huge thank you to all those who made this book possible. To Roger Johnson who went above and beyond and was an absolute rock throughout the short time period we had to put this book together; to Michael Cox and Sue Vertue for their help and support, the producers of two different but equally brilliant Sherlock Holmes television series; Nicholas Briggs, Douglas Wilmer, David Stuart Davies, Roger Llewellyn, Gyles Brandreth, Jeff Decker, Alistair Duncan, Stephen Fry and Mark Gatiss (Patron of UPT) for their contributions and sharing with us the importance of saving Undershaw; and finally The Undershaw Preservation Trust, Lynn Gale and Jacquelynn Morris, for bringing this to the public’s attention and MX Publishing for making the book a reality.

  Sherlockology

  www.sherlockology.com

  The Undershaw Preservation Trust

  Towards the end of 2008, I had a very vivid dream about a Victorian family standing in the doorway of a huge house. From behind an old-fashioned camera I appeared to be taking photographs. On waking I tried desperately to place these people that had shared my dream, but nothing prepared me for the shock when I opened a book of Sir Arthur’s several months later to find a picture of his second family, just as they had appeared in my dream.

  Several months later I set out by car with my camera slung on the back seat with no clear journey in mind. The ‘For Sale’ sign at the entrance of Undershaw, which I had passed on many occasions before, seemed to jump out at me: a clear indication that I should descend on Undershaw with my camera held firmly in my hand to capture its history. The photos that were taken on that day of a decaying building formed part of what has lead me into a campaign that, over the years, has aroused the attention of people from all walks of life and from all around the globe.

  I had no idea what was waiting for me behind the mass of tall trees as I slowly walked down the long driveway that meandered its way down to the red brick building. History appeared to seep out of its walls as I trod the same ground as many who had walked before me centuries ago. I had gone there in my teens and somehow it felt that I was walking back in time. There, underneath high-rise scaffolding and a protective roof, stood the former Surrey home of Sherlock Holmes’ creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a much respected gentleman of the neighbourhood in his day and one of the greatest fictional authors of all time.

  I was struck by the state of near ruin the house was in; clearly it had been abandoned to weather the elements alone over the years. Almost instantaneously I felt a strong urge to save it and, by so doing, return it to its former charm, character and elegance.

  Save it? How does one achieve such a remarkable, insane feat? Was I just an irrational, over-enthusiastic woman who wanted to perform the impossible? But the urge was so strong that I felt propelled forward: if there is something you want so badly, it can always be achieved.

  My fervent hope for Undershaw is that it will be resurrected as Sherlock Holmes was resurrected and that, like Sherlock Holmes, it will live on for many generations to come.

  Lynn Gale

  Undershaw has always been a place of hospitality…the stage having first been set by Arthur Conan Doyle who entertained many family, friends and literary luminaries in the home that was his inspiration …and then carried on by managements who ran it for decades as a welcoming hotel , with guests enjoying its cuisine and conviviality and oft times dining in the garden tree house. Amongst ACD’s many talents, the pursuit of justice was paramount. And it is justice that must again triumph to free Undershaw from the grips of vandalism and to restore it to a meeting place of like minds, interests, intrigue and aspiration.

  Sue Meadows

  Co-founders of The Undershaw Preservation Trust

  www.saveundershaw.com

  Undershaw – A Brief History

  For the benefit of those who don’t know, Undershaw is the name given by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to his former home in Hindhead, Surrey. He lived there from October 1897 until September 1907 when he married his second wife, Jean Leckie, and moved to Crowborough in Sussex.

  Undershaw is unique amongst Conan Doyle’s former homes
as it is the only one where he had a hand in the design. Many of its features were designed specifically with Louise Conan Doyle in mind. She had been suffering from tuberculosis since late 1893 and the large windows, shallow staircases and doors that could be pushed from both sides were all features designed for her comfort. Sadly the house would be the site of her death in July 1906 when she finally succumbed to her illness.

  It was in this house that many of Conan Doyle’s works of significance were created (in whole or in part). For the readers of this book the most notable works produced during this time were The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Return of Sherlock Holmes. It is therefore perfectly fair to say that Undershaw was the site of Sherlock Holmes’s re-birth. This was, of course, a cause for celebration by his many fans at the time and is something fans of today are equally grateful for.

  After Conan Doyle left the house in 1907 it was briefly let to tenants. It is believed that he hoped to eventually give the house to his son Kingsley but when he (Kinglsey) tragically died just before the end of the First World War, Conan Doyle made the decision to sell Undershaw at a rock-bottom price. Some little time later it became a hotel.

  In 2004, when its period as a hotel came to an end, the house was purchased with a view to redevelopment. An application was made to the local council (and approved) to convert the grade two listed building into a series of apartments and town houses with additional new structures to be built in the grounds.

  These are the plans that The Undershaw Preservation Trust and its supporters (including you dear reader) are fighting against. This battle needs fighting not only for the sake of Undershaw but for the sake of historically significant sites worldwide. The people in power need to be shown that we will not stand by without protest while they attempt to rob us of our history.

  Alistair Duncan 2012

  Not Our Glory

  Words And Music By Caitlin Obom

  This room, it don’t hold you now like I did

  but I can feel your footsteps through the floor

  the paper peels away, and I keep waiting

  but your hands don’t trail the hallways anymore

  And they can’t read the dust

  where your feet they graced the ground

  and they don’t see this memory

  that’s keepin’ you around

  No, we ain’t empty

  these silent houses keep the time

  the years, they wrote a memoir

  on each floorboard’s crooked lines

  read the world the way you want

  you’ve your methods, i have mine

  each of us can write a different story

  and time may take our lives,

  but not our glory

  These walls could never grow used to the silence

  or filtered light run shattered through the glass

  meant to be remembered and delivered

  something that was made to last

  And they don’t know a heart

  when it’s breaking down the door

  if they don’t understand what keeps it

  pounding anymore

  No, we ain’t empty

  these silent houses keep the time

  the years, they wrote a memoir

  on each floorboard’s crooked lines

  Read the world the way you want

  you’ve your methods, I have mine

  each of us can write a different story

  and time may take our lives,

  but not our glory

  Oh my battered beauty

  oh this wasted bone

  don’t give up the ghost yet

  erasure’s writ in stone

  No, we ain’t empty

  these silent houses keep the time

  the years, they wrote a memoir

  on these floorboard’s crooked lines

  read the world the way you want

  you’ve your methods, i have mine

  each of us can write a different story

  and time may take our lives,

  but not our glory

  © 2012 Caitlin Obom. All Rights Reserved.

  Used with permission from Caitlin Obom on behalf of The Undershaw Preservation Trust.

  Supporters

  There isn’t room in a hundred books for the words of all the supporters of Save Undershaw – but here is a small selection from actors, writers, producers and historians which sum up the sentiments of the thousands of Sherlock Holmes fans around the world.

  Mark Gatiss,

  Stephen Fry,

  Roger Johnson,

  Gyles Brandreth,

  Douglas Wilmer,

  Nick Briggs,

  Michael Cox,

  David Stuart-Davies,

  Roger Llewelwyn, Alistair Duncan.

  I would like to express my whole-hearted enthusiasm for the campaign to save Undershaw. It seems to me a very sad reflection on our times that the home of one of our greatest and most popular writers should be so neglected and in danger of unsympathetic redevelopment.

  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle occupied several residences in his prolific and thrilling career, only Undershaw bears the stamp of his massive personality. Here the Hound of the Baskervilles first breathed spectral life and Sherlock Holmes himself was resurrected from the Reichenbach Falls. Here Stoker, Barrie and Hornung and many others were entertained. It’s no exaggeration to say that Undershaw was the centre of Doyle’s life during perhaps the most fruitful and fascinating phase of his career. It must be saved and take its place among the sensitively preserved residences of this country’s other literary giants. This is certainly a three-pipe problem but not, I am convinced, an insoluble one.

  Mark Gatiss

  Patron, The Undershaw Preservation Trust.

  Actor, screenwriter, novelist, and co-producer with Steven Moffat of the BBC series, ‘Sherlock’.

  Conan Doyle has passed with flying colours whatever test is needed to guarantee an eternal, imperishable place in British cultural life. It may be that Harry Potter won’t last a century (I am sure he will, but you can’t always tell) but it is more certain than anything else in all literature that Sherlock Holmes will last, not just centuries, but for millennia. There is simply no other fictional character in the world who has endured so long and who stands for so much. As we have seen so spectacularly and successfully just in the past year and a half, Sherlock can be reinvented for every age. What would generations yet unborn think of us if we allowed the home of Holmes’s creator to fall into decay and disrepair? What would they think of us if they discovered that we had knowingly bulldozed it for no better reasons than greed and laziness? They would be as appalled as the hundreds of thousands around the world are who are calling out, “No. Stop! Think!! This is a false economy and an act of philistine stupidity.”

  There is so much a living, thriving Undershaw could achieve. It could be a study centre, a visitor attraction, a leading museum and a focus of pride. I urge all those have the power, to think of themselves not as wrecking balls, but as people of vision and creative insight. Holmes will only get bigger over the ages, don’t let Britain get smaller.

  Stephen Fry

  Writer and Actor

  Once the youngest member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and most recently seen as Mycroft Holmes in ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows’.

  Despite the crass philistine statement of a former Culture Secretary, Arthur Conan Doyle’s place in English literature - and in international culture - is secure. Like the works of many others, his writings are still, a century on, studied, dissected and criticised by students and academics. But Conan Doyle is one of a select few whose books are also still read for sheer pleasure after a hu
ndred years or more. People read “The Lost World”, “The White Company” and especially the various tales of Sherlock Holmes for the best reason of all: because they want to. (As Sir Christopher Frayling has said, you can assure a modern reader that the Sherlock Holmes books are entertaining, and there’s no need to add, “Of course, there are some dull bits...” That’s a rare distinction for a Victorian author.)

  Undershaw, Conan Doyle’s house at Hindhead, is of national - even international - importance in the literary landscape of Britain. This is where he wrote ‘The Adventures of Gerard’, ‘Sir Nigel’ and ‘The Great Boer War’. This was the house he left to become a medical officer in the South African conflict. This was his home when he became Sir Arthur. This is where Sherlock Holmes was reborn.

  The fact that Conan Doyle worked with the architect J H Ball in designing the house gives it a rare and precious personal quality. To adapt a sentiment from the website; www.scottsabbotsford.co.uk, dedicated to the home of Sir Walter Scott, an author whom Conan Doyle deeply admired, ‘When you touch the bricks and mortar of Undershaw you are touching the soul of Arthur Conan Doyle.’

  The present state of the house, neglected by its owners and damaged by vandals, is deeply sad. Undershaw can and must be saved!

  Roger Johnson

  The Sherlock Holmes Society of London

  Editor: The Sherlock Holmes Journal

  Arthur Conan Doyle was a fine writer, a great story-teller and a remarkable man. His personal story is fascinating (impressive and moving) and he made his mark on the world in a way that only a few have. He belongs to that small band of writers who have created characters that live beyond the page. Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson. Mrs Hudson. Professor Moriarty, The Baker Street Irregulars - these characters and their world are known across every continent - and are set to last. Conan Doyle’s home is a house of national and international cultural, social and literary significance.

  Gyles Brandreth