I don't actually
know a great deal about Dunloe Lodge other than that it was once the
home of the Count of Clanarty and that he lived there with his wife
Belle (below) who
was formerly a famous show girl. The house is constructed from red brick
with ornamental tiling and elegantly decorated walls.
At
some point in the 1970s there was a terrible fire which gutted the
house. It was so bad that at the height of the blaze the fire brigade
turned out five appliances to deal with it. Despite the fact that it was
one of the rainiest nights on record, and that the Thames, which is only
a few yards from the front of the building, was actually on a flood
warning, arson has never been officially recognised as the cause!!! It
was announced at the time that the house would be re-built but 40 plus
years later it is still a burnt out shell.
The floors are
almost all gone now and in places you can see right up through the house
to the sky beyond. In other places parts of the structure are still
intact and we were able to get up to the first and second floors, albeit
with extreme care. On the way back down again though the intermediate
landing threatened to collapse and it was only the carpet sinking into
the hole which saved us from falling through the stairs.
Externally the
gardens are massively overgrown and encroaching heavily upon the walls
of the house, which is a shame because this must have been an extremely
pretty property, situated as it is right on the edge of the river only a
few hundred yards up from The Skindles Hotel, itself also closed and
boarded up now. Oddly it does not appear that the house is listed - when
you see the magnificent front elevation this is all the more surprising.
Judging by what
was left to see internally after the fire, the layout suggests that the
house had been converted at some time into several self contained flats,
the most obvious pointers to this being a bathroom on the ground floor
and a kitchenette on the first floor, plus several electricity meters
instead of just the one you might expect to find in a solo occupancy
house.
TJ and I had
to abandon our projected explore on the way down to London so we fell
back to Dunloe Lodge in Maidenhead instead.
Below is a
selection of the photographs we took in and around the house.
If you wish
to view any in a much larger size then click the picture of your
choice...
The house is lost in the
heavily overgrown gardens... |
Not much roof left...
|
Ivy totally covers much of the
front of the building...
|
The front of the house is
practically hidden... |
Some of the branches are
seriously thick...
|
The staircase to the upper
floor is in very poor shape...
|
Coming away
from the wall and burnt so badly it practically floats in space! |
Ground floor corridor to the
lounge...
|
Within the lounge...
|
Ground floor bathroom...
|
There is an other lounge at
the front of the house... |
Stacking chairs - I wonder
what for? |
Ornate ceilings...
|
No upper floors remain in this
section of the house...
|
...and water ingress has badly
affected the interior...
|
Another bathroom... |
Ornate tiles... |
Within the main bedroom...
CLICK THIS PHOTO TO VIEW
AN INTERACTIVE PANORAMA OF THE ROOM... |
Despite the fire damage I
thought this was rather pretty...
|
Switch... |
Soot blackens much of what
did not get burnt... |
Open to the skies... |
Beautiful brickwork
chimneys...
|
A very
precarious landing on the way back down again - only the carpet
stops you falling through... |
| |
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main urb-ex index page... |
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