Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gothic house: Langford Place, St John's Wood
Above I have drawn one of the queerest Gothic houses in London. This is in St John's
Wood, but much later than those already mentioned. The house is to be found in Langford
Place, and is worth drawing and describing if only for a strange atmosphere which can be
felt very readily. How it acquired its ghostly quality, I am unable to say - but that bay win-
dow, was there ever anything quite like it? It seems to come forward in menacing fashion,
like a great helmet, and the tracery below is filled with stained glass of lilies. Even on a
day of light and summer sun, this window has a sinister air about it, untoward and oppress-
ive as if possessed of some fearful secret. The room behind it has an uncanny atmosphere,
not precisely eerie but, just as in the garden,
you feel you are being watched
.
To end this chapter on a lighter note, I have illustrated an oddity from the site of the
