This has to be nominated as one of the most grand, impressive houses of the locality - It's Old Conduit House on the corner of Lyndhurst Terrace and Lyndhurst Road.The house is festooned with features - some a shade OTT some more subtle - all feel old and established and a symbol of old victorian confidence and money and status.
The old Conduit House was number 1 Lyndhurst Terrace and was originally called Bayford House. it was built along with the house next door in 1864 by Charles Buckeridge.
Lyndhurst Terrace itself has changed name - first Rosslyn Park after Rosslyn House (itself named after Alexander Wedderburn, Earl of Rosslyn). It was also called Windsor Terrace apparently because the Castle was visible over the fields!Lyndhurst is after Lord Lyndhurst, J S Copley, Lord Chancellor who is buried in Highgate Cemetery.
The land in front were of course the Conduit Fields so named as a reference to the nearby Shepherd's Well and Spring Path is also nearby.
The house is descibed principly by the turreted Gothic effect and indeed those turrets retain their dominance of this corner of the terrace.
4 comments:
I've actually been inside that particular house. It looks great from the outside but unfortunately the inside is divided up into grotty flats and bedsits.
My friend lived there for many years. Grotty, yes but in a moth-eaten unspoiled-by-progress way. The facilities were antique!
The staircase with the stained glass was particularly impressive, though I read elsewhere that some of the original fittings have been stolen for their rarity and value.
Andrew and Louise Goodwin did not have the energy or the appetite to renovate, and the mainly elderly residents were happy enough to live without modern fittings. It was always going to be down to their successors to undertake refurbishment, but I wonder whether the character will be retained despite its listed status.
In fact the residents were not mainly elderly - they were mainly eccentric. In my early 30's I lived there, on the top floor, opposite Dennis and Laure Howard: the chap next to me was younger than I and the one at the end of the hall might have been 40.
Louise Goodwin felt compelled to provide cheap accommodation, and we were most grateful to her for it. Thanks to her I had spare cash to spend on things like books and theatre. The house was extremely impressive and extremely cold, but I still think about how much I enjoyed living in such an interesting place.
I would love to know when Louise died and what has become of Andrew; he was kind to me.
Katie Mavity (now aged 55; ouch!)
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