A BRIDAL HALL OF TRAGEDY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXI, Issue 9853, 4 November 1924, Page 2

A BRIDAL HALL OF TRAGEDY

LONDON MANSION OF MYSTERY

One of those grotesque and romantic stories of a gorgeous bridal chamber, prepared for a wedding winch death never permitted to take place, and now a ghostly hall tenanted Jurats and mice aiil festooned with cobwebs and rotting drapery, is suggested by the legend of Chelsea's mysterv house.

This strange house of balconied windows, .gargoyles, and classic cornices, overlooking a tangled wilderness of a garden with Greek statuary, s

familiar to all omnibus passengers through Gal-Joy Street, Chelsea. Seven modern houses, each with a garden and garage and hot wafer land on, are shortly to take its place. The story of the Oakley Street mystery house is a str.uige one. and in stone ways recalls the famous '.London legend of Dirty Dick, of fiisliopsgal >. An eccentric virtuoso, Dr. Rhone, who lived in a large ho.iso opposite, is said to have designed the mysterv house as a- home for 1 iis future bride. He returned from Florence with a i calth of architectural ideas derived fiom Renaissance buildings, which he lavishly carried out in the interior and exterior design of his “folly ” The wedding breakfast was laid out in a stately room, with an ornate ceiling decorated with the Tudors and fii i r-cle-l.vs.

Then death stepped in and claimed the bride on the very morning of the wedding-day. The heart-broken bridegroom gave orders that the room sl-ould he sealed up as it was. ami, though furnished, the house itself was never occupied by anyone. Old Chelsea folk and the artistic quarter speak of a white-robed ghost fa woman whose form has been flitting through the bridal chamber at fitting times). Since Dr .Phene died about twelve years ago the house has seen some curious changes of ownership. Originally the facade was a mass of bright gilding; then it was painted chocolate and a company bought the house intending to turn it into an hotel.

This plan, however, proved abortive and in a few months another of old London’s interesting landmarks will he a tiling of the past.