DORCHESTER HOUSE

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 August 1929, Page 10

DORCHESTER HOUSE

INTERIOR STRIPPED FOR SALE. LONDON, August 13. , The abolition of Dorchester House, s Park Lane, one of London’s most : famous and most magnificent resi- : dences, and one of the last of the ■ great Victorian mansions now standing, was advanced a further stage l to- ■ day, when auctioneers sold what they called “the embellishments, decorai tions, fixtures, etc.” The building is > to be replaced by a large hotel. ; Startlingly low prices were realised. , The grand staircase, 35ft square, with - solid marble steps, Bft wide, which f would fit in the British Museum, the 1 National Gallery, or Waterloo station, j and cost thousands x>f pounds to build, . caused the auctioneer hopefully to i suggest 300 or 400 guineas for a start. “A hundred,” said the auctioneer. ; There was still no answer. He then ’ suggested 50 guineas, for which it was ■ sold. t Girls in pretty summer frocks tour- - ed the great mansion with their moth- - ers, who bemoaned the vandalism of breaking down such treasures of art ; in the ceilings,' overmantels and tiles. A syndicate purchased Dorchester House, Park Lane, from the Earl of ’ Morley at the beginning of last year. > It proposes to erect on the site the i largest and most luxurious hotel in '■ the whole of the British Isles. The • cost will be about £1,000,000, and the hotel will have 600 bedrooms, a large" restaurant, grill room, separate banqueting halls and a Turkish bath. The price paid for the residence was about £400,000. Dorchester House, which was completed about 1852 was designed by Lewis Vulliamy for the late Mr Robert Stayner Holford, and is a striking example of the Florentine style in Portland stone. Its exterior walls are almost 4ft. thick. Among the features of the splendid interior are the staircase of white marble, with alabaster balustrading, the first floor landing, which has a dome painted by Sir Coutts Lindsay and supported by Corinthian columns, : ceilings ornamented by Anglinatti, ; and mantelpieces and other work by ; Alfred Stevens. The property, with ’ its spacious forecourts, terraces, gar- " dens and walks, forms a site not far short of two acres. (