Laudervale was a
Victorian
Victorian or Victorians may refer to:
19th century
* Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign
** Victorian architecture
** Victorian house
** Victorian decorative arts
** Victorian fashion
** Victorian literatur ...
sandstone
mansion
A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...
near
Dunoon
Dunoon (; ) is the main town on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It is located on the western shore of the upper Firth of Clyde, to the south of the Holy Loch and to the north of Innellan. As well as forming part of the cou ...
, Scotland, most notable for being the home of
Sir Harry Lauder.
The house was located on
Bullwood Road, a few hundred metres south of Bullwood. Built as Gerhallow House, it was bought by Harry Lauder and his wife from Douglas Granville Gossling on 20 May 1908. The couple disliked the existing name and by 1912 had renamed it to the more personalised ''Laudervale'', carrying out in the intervening years a full restoration, including laying "beautiful mahogany parquet floors", the wood being a present after a tour of the Philippines. Lauder used the property as his principal residence from 1908 into the 1930s.
After its sale, many years later, the subsequent owner fell asleep smoking, setting the house on fire, which burnt over half of it.
[Wallace, 1998, p.38, includes photos of the fire brigades attending the blaze.] It remained in a ruinous state until the 1980s when the house, the stable blocks, and the stone walls surrounding the park, were demolished. Most of the grounds were subsequently sold for housing development. The development there today preserves the ''Laudervale'' name.
References
Houses in Argyll and Bute
Demolished buildings and structures in Scotland
Buildings and structures in Dunoon
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