Elementary, my dear Watson

ARMED with newly attributed sketches, the Victorian Society is battling to save the only surviving example of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘bizarre yet fascinating’ architectural design and has requested Historic England list the building before it is redeveloped. The author remodelled the façade of the former Lyndhurst Park Hotel, previously known as Glasshayes House, in the New Forest in 1912 from a uniquely spiritualist perspective, which probably makes it the only existing building to express spiritualism.

‘“Life” is represented by the lowest part of the building’s façade, which steps up in height to represent the soul’s journey upwards,’ explains Olivia Stockdale, the society’s conservation advisor. ‘The next section, representing “death”, is focused on the main entrance, which was intended to be read as the entrance to the journey for the soul. Next comes “the afterlife” with a uniform window arrangement to represent the “spirits in harmony” according to Conan Doyle’s notes. The building’s tallest section represents the final stage, the “higher spiritual place”.’

Hoburne Development’s plan to turn the building into 77 houses and flats, plus eight holiday homes, is not entirely objectionable, but it would mostly remove both ‘afterlife’ and ‘higher spiritual place’ sections and a proposed roof extension would merge ‘death’ and ‘afterlife’. In 2017, a Victorian Society campaign successfully prevented the building’s demolition.