Dear colleagues,
On 23rd May next the High Court in London will review the planning
permission granted to convert Undershaw, the house in Surrey built for Conan
Doyle to his own designs in 1897 and empty since 2004. This would allow the
house to be divided vertically into three and the gardens to be built over.
The case for overturning the permission on the grounds that the house's
cultural value was not considered is being made by the Undershaw
Preservation Trust, which wishes to see it restored as a single private
residence; and by Academics for Undershaw, an international group of
academics and other scholars now numbering 394, which favours the creation
of a Conan Doyle Museum and Centre for British & Irish Crime Writing.
We hope that more scholars will wish to add their names to AfU by contacting
me ([log in to unmask]) before it is too late. The list will be sent on
request.
With best wishes,
David Charles Rose
Paris
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