White Ladfies Loughborough - Feb 20

[BikinGlynn]

I keep hearing "all domestics are crap & they have all been trashed these days", well last year I did quite a few of this standard but unfortunately the only reason they are not destroyed is through keeping them quiet. No-one likes doing so but this is the age of the goontube we live in.

White Ladies is an extraordinary deco house with a deceptively bland exterior, but inside is a delightful mix of unusual design & high tech living.
The pièce de résistance being a roof top terrace & swimming pool.

I should mention at this point that White Ladies is now being lovingly renovated by a new owner & the progress can be followed on insta here Login • Instagram

I also know they & their followers dont take too kindly to "our kind" so Im expecting some backlash from this report, but would like to make it clear that as always we didnt break entry here & are doing our bit to preserve the history of such places.

White Ladies,is grade 2 listed & described as an Art Deco house built in the 1920s or 1930s is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a very good example of a detached suburban house in the Art Deco style with its flat roof, stepped façade and strong geometric blocks which create a well-proportioned composition with a bold variation in plane;
* White Ladies horizontal character and sharply clean lines are emphasised by the repetition of wide terracotta bands and large metal-framed windows, the intricate design of the stained glass offering a surprisingly delicate antidote to this dominant geometric quality;

I have a lot of pics from here for which I make no apologies for, I bloody loved this house & would of done the restoration myself in a heartbeat had funds allowed.
Ill now start the tour from bottom up.

The first living room was full of stuff & had a cool deco fireplace flanked by narrow windows that housed glass shelves & ornaments.

The second larger living / dining room was pretty empty bar a few shelves. There was also a book of calling cards with the house name & adress on which I found quite cool.

This corner hosed a modern sound system & a shelving alcove that I believe used to be a window back in the day.

Moving on the kitchen was pretty uneventful until I opened the fridge, I honestly nearly wretched with the smell from the years old produce that had just been left in there

Back to the galley this had a pretty cool fireplace & the hand cranked dumb waiter serving all 3 floors of the property.

Moving upstairs the bedrooms were full of retro gear

The 2 bathrooms on this level were rather nice retro examples

From this level you can see whilst a pool on the roof seems a good idea, having concrete stairs accessing the roof room to it is not! This considerable weight of concrete was hanging on by the skin of its teeth from a perilous journey through the floor below!

Lastly I made my way up the narrow winding staircase to the roof.

This room was formally a ramshackle conservatory & later converted into a more substantial brick built affair, complete with sound system, games consoles, animal cages, pool table , bed , dumb waiter & access to the terrace & pool I could only imagine the hours of entertaining that could of took place up here!

Photos of the house on its former glory.

To finish off outside we go

Oops dont tread there

I think thats enough, chow for now!

 

[J_a_t_33]

Wowser, retro magic! Fantastic!

 

[Wrench]

That's just brilliant sir, good pics and such a lovely place.
Really nice work.

 

[BikinGlynn]

Wowser, retro magic! Fantastic!

Yeah there was some stuff in there that took me back for sure

 

[heidi1906]

Great pictures, lovely place, I walk past there quite a bit as it's up the road from me

 

[GC7820]

I followed the link to the new owners refurbishment blog and they said it was lived in until 2018 - given the advanced state of decay (more than 2 years worth) they must’ve been living in pretty awful squalor.

 

[Hayman]

Having worked in central heating, the radiator made up of four short sections welded together is something I have never seen before. I see someone read - or bought - a lot of National Geographic magazines, and the still well-stocked fridge gives a sense of sudden abandinment. Did the final occupant just die? Or taken to die in hospital or in a care home? The vintage hookah and other items (the National Geographics, for example) suggest it was a person who had travelled a lot, mostly likely in the East.

The dumb waiter, with the wheel to raise or lower it reminded me of Haccombe House, in Devon. It was a boarding school for a while in the early 1950s - I went to it. There had been a fire in the front part of it at some time in the past, and some of the rooms were not used. There was a rope-operated passenger lift between the ground and first floors.

 

[BikinGlynn]

I followed the link to the new owners refurbishment blog and they said it was lived in until 2018 - given the advanced state of decay (more than 2 years worth) they must’ve been living in pretty awful squalor.

Yeah it makes me wonder. there it was possible that someone was living in just a few rooms but with a massive hole in the roof it must of been horrendous & not very safe.
I know they were prob of some age but you would think to own a property like this they would of had the funds to get someone in to do basic repairs & cleaning

 

[BikinGlynn]

Having worked in central heating, the radiator made up of four short sections welded together is something I have never seen before. I see someone read - or bought - a lot of National Geographic magazines, and the still well-stocked fridge gives a sense of sudden abandinment. Did the final occupant just die? Or taken to die in hospital or in a care home? The vintage hookah and other items (the National Geographics, for example) suggest it was a person who had travelled a lot, mostly likely in the East.

The dumb waiter, with the wheel to raise or lower it reminded me of Haccombe House, in Devon. It was a boarding school for a while in the early 1950s - I went to it. There had been a fire in the front part of it at some time in the past, and some of the rooms were not used. There was a rope-operated passenger lift between the ground and first floors.

Im not sure if the occupants died or went into a home, but there seems a lot of personal stuff to just leave.

There was evidence that they were well trawled throughout the house.

 

[Hayman]

Also, can anyone make something of the poem in the frame on the wall? Is it in German? Or perhaps Welsh or Gaelic? The title OND DOCH! (with the exclamation mark) seems to be either humorous or a sign of encouragement. Any ideas?

 

[BikinGlynn]

Also, can anyone make something of the poem in the frame on the wall? Is it in German? Or perhaps Welsh or Gaelic? The title OND DOCH! (with the exclamation mark) seems to be either humorous or a sign of encouragement. Any ideas?

Yeah I wondered that, Ill try & have a look later

 

[Hayman]

Yeah I wondered that, Ill try & have a look later

I have a Swiss German friend, and I asked her. She thought it might have been some German dialect. If you go online in Google and type in Ond Doch and Sebastian Blau, you will find an LP with the title "Dehoam sei ond doch Joner hao" in Gaelic or Celtic script. How does that translate? The list of tracks is a mixture of what look like German, Dutch, Luxumbourgish and similar languages. One track is called Adjee!, which seems to be adieu - goodbye. The LP is from a live performance in Germany.
I have tried finding a poem called Ond Doch online, but have failed. The exclamation mark signifies something. That "Ond" is so like "Und" (and) in German does not help. As a German conjunction, Doch could translate as: but, however, etc. "Dim doch" in Welsh translates as "No you don't". So many possibilities. And Yet!

 

[Sam Haltin]

I speak German and "Und or Ond Doch" means "And Yet". I think it's a philosophical type of poem. I too couldn't find anything online, even German University websites. Maybe it is Dutch as the word "Ond" is Dutch.

 

[Hayman]

I speak German and "Und or Ond Doch" means "And Yet". I think it's a philosophical type of poem. I too couldn't find anything online, even German University websites. Maybe it is Dutch as the word "Ond" is Dutch.

Thanks a lot, Hugh. For it to have been printed and framed suggests a well known poem somewhere. My Swiss German friend thought the "Ond" might be a dialect version of "Und".

 

[sadlerwells]

Wow, just found this from your link in the Tewks Road thread. Thanks for the Instagram link to the people renovating it, fascinating.

 

[BikinGlynn]

Wow, just found this from your link in the Tewks Road thread. Thanks for the Instagram link to the people renovating it, fascinating.

yeah its pretty cool aint it. I know they have no love for the few urbexers that made it in here but it was well before their ownership.
They are doing a amazing job & like seeing it progress, they must have a bottomless pit of cash though lol

 

[sadlerwells]

yeah its pretty cool aint it. I know they have no love for the few urbexers that made it in here but it was well before their ownership.
They are doing a amazing job & like seeing it progress, they must have a bottomless pit of cash though lol

Must have!

 

[Sarah Waldock]

Yeah it makes me wonder. there it was possible that someone was living in just a few rooms but with a massive hole in the roof it must of been horrendous & not very safe.
I know they were prob of some age but you would think to own a property like this they would of had the funds to get someone in to do basic repairs & cleaning

you say that, but we own a large house which is inherited, and are both disabled and struggle to keep it up, since income went south rather rapidly. Keeping a roof from leaking is challenging enough when it isn't a flat roof like the one you show.
A beautiful place and I'm glad it's been renovated. Decent deco private residences are few and far between, and this is very pleasing. I got the Poirot theme music playing in my head for it.