A MYSTERY HOUSE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1038, 2 May 1912, Page 4

A MYSTERY HOUSE.

One of the most eccentric characters in London has just died in the person of Dr. John Samuel Phene, known as the owner of the “mystery house’’ in Oakley street, Chelsea, S.W., Dr Phene was ninety-one years of age. The “mystery house” stands at the corner of Oakley street and Upper Cheyne row. It is a high, square building of substantial type. Its Cheyne row front is decorated in the most bizarre fashion. From pavement level to sloping roof it is a jumble of twisting columns and quaint symbolic figures. ihere are cuddling cupids, ancientgoddesses, mermaids, imps, and the rest without end. Surmounting them all are two rampant dragons. Over the pillared doorway are set the words, “Renaissance due Chateau de Saveuay.” The front is covered with the dirt of many years, the windows are shuttered and the doors boarded up.

The story goes that Dr. Phene was reconstructing the house for his wite, but when she died suddenly he gave up the task. Jt is nearly thirty years since the house was occupied, and twelve years since the front was prepared in its present style. The interior of the house is as curious as its exterior. Many rooms are pillared and ceilings are gilded, Irescoed and painted in gorgeous style, but all is in a state of dilapidation, A caretaker lives in the basement of the house, but she says she has never ventured into the upper chambers of the “mystery house.’ Around this silent, shuttered house is a garden, four acres in extent, decorated with scores of statues and figures, many now broken and weather-worn, which the doctor collected during journeyiugs on the Continent or from curiosity dealers. The house in which the doctor lived, 32 Oakley street, is crowded with curios and statues of all kinds. He lived largely the life of a hermit, and no one knows much of him. The mystery of the “mystery house’’ will be buried with him. Once, it is stated, he said that his wife and two children died within a fortnight of each other.