Undershaw

Coordinates: 51°06′48″N 0°44′00″W / 51.113252°N 0.733412°W / 51.113252; -0.733412

Undershaw is a former residence of the well-known author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. The unusual house was built for Doyle at his order to accommodate his wife's health requirements, and is the location where he lived with his family from 1897 to 1907. Undershaw is where Doyle wrote many of his works, including The Hound of the Baskervilles, and hosted notable persons of the era.

For decades after Doyle sold the house, Undershaw served as a hotel, which closed in 2004. The property has been vacant since then. In 2014 the house and grounds were purchased by the DFN Charitable Foundation for Stepping Stones School and are to be restored for use as a school for children with special needs. This is a use many are sure Conan Doyle would have approved of, indeed Richard Doyle, great nephew of Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, “I don’t believe that Undershaw should be preserved in aspic, but lived in and laughed in…. If it’s possible for some of this magical, special building to become the heart of a new school that contributes to the thriving community of Hindhead then I would be very happy”.