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27
Feb
Ripon home that inspired 'Alice' author Lewis Carroll back on market
A house in Ripon once lived in by writer Lewis Carroll and thought to have inspired some of his poetry has come back onto the market.
The author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland lived at the Old Hall between 1852 and 1858, when his father was canon at the cathedral nearby.
The grade II* listed house on High St Agnesgate was put on the market last June, but the owners took it off over the winter and have just put it up for sale again.
The Old Hall on High St Agnesgate. Photo: Savills.
The elegant Georgian house has some modern additions – much of the second floor is now a cinema room – but it also retains a lot of the features that Carroll, whose real name was the Reverend Charles Dodgson, would recognise.
For example, there is a 1738 staircase hall with ornate plasterwork, and there are oak balusters, Doric pilasters and pine wainscotting galore.
The agent, Savills, notes:
The lower hall captivates with a ceiling roundel depicting Cupid, framed by delicate foliage drops, while the stair walls are draped in elegant foliage swags.
Above, an owl – symbol of Pallas Athena – graces the window, and the upper hall ceiling commands awe with its grand Judgement of Paris scene.
Some of the ceilings are highly decorated.
Could that bird have inspired Lewis Carroll’s owl in chapter 10 of his most famous book?
Aspects of Ripon have long been said to have inspired features of his work. For example, it has been suggested that Alice falling down a rabbit hole was inspired either by the city’s sinkholes or by a 15th-century misericord carving in Ripon Cathedral depicting a rabbit darting down a hole.
A gryphon catches a rabbit, as another rabbit (just to the right) disappears down a hole.
A spokesperson for Savills told the Stray Ferret that the six-bedroom house had had “a fair few” viewings, mostly from people living locally rather than coming from elsewhere.
The property, which came back onto the market with Savills yesterday (Thursday), is for sale with a guide price of £1.5 million.
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