Writers’ Homes at Risk

Over the past year or so The Rap Sheet, the crime fiction blog of January Magazine has been covering the threat from developers to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Surrey house, Undershaw. Conan Doyle's house was rescued (for now) with help from the Victorian Society. Yesterday it reported that Rutherford's bar in Edinburgh, which has connections with Robert Louis Stephenson, and more recently Ian Rankin, is also at risk. I have my own date with a Scottish literary landmark next year and I'll be writing more about that in the coming months, though unlike Rutherford's it is unlikely ever to become an Italian restaurant and nightclub. From the The Rap Sheet (via The Elegant Variation):

Although it was remodeled in 1899 by Edinburgh architect James M. Henry, and its interior was modernized in the mid-20th century, Rutherford’s elegant historic façade remains, as do “the terrazzo floor and marble walls of the lavatory and boxed-in sawdust spittoon channel,” according to Edinburgh’s Evening News. However, that newspaper adds, the pub’s original purpose may now be in peril ...

Here's the link.

Posted by Chris Routledge