As you may already know, it has been announced that on 23rd May 2012, the High Court in London will be undertaking the judicial review of Waverley Borough Council's granting of planning permission for what would amount to the destruction of Conan Doyle's house, Undershaw in Surrey.  Undershaw has been left empty since bought in 2004 by Fosseway Ltd, which has planning permission to turn the house into three maisonettes and to build over the gardens.  The judicial review is being undertaken on the laudable initiative of the Undershaw Preservation Trust (www.saveundershaw.com).

 

I have felt for a long time, however, that the UPT’s main aim that Undershaw should be returned to use as a private residence was not an objective that would or even should attract maximum support. After testing the water, I and Rakshita Patel, formerly the UPT’s London rep, came up with the idea of a Conan Doyle Museum / Centre for British & Irish Crime Writing as establishing and furthering the cultural and social value of the house, and far more likely to attract funding. We then set about seeking support for this idea among academics and other scholars. I am pleased to say that to date 460 have signed up as ‘Academics for Undershaw’.

There are thus three plans in contention: