[Mar. 2024] While staying in Torquay in the southwest of England, a couple of friends took us on an excursion to Dartmouth.
First, they showed us a house called Coleton Fishacre.
It is a country house completed in 1926 for Rupert D’Oyly Carte, who owned the Savoy Hotel and the Opera Company in London.
It is common for wealthy people in the UK to have homes in the city (mainly London) and the countryside, and there seems to be no sense of which is their main home and which is their second home.
After Rupert and his wife separated, his daughter managed the house, but it was later sold.
After it came into the hands of another hotelier, it has been run by the British charity National Trust since 1982.
Admission was £15 per person.
The National Trust’s good sense is that they recreated the original D’Oyly Carte house as it was when it was lived in, not the last owner.
It creates a vivid atmosphere that makes you feel like someone from that time could really appear there right now.
Not only are there furniture and props from the 1920s lined up, but for example, the pillow on the bed is dented as if someone had just gotten up.
I was impressed by the attention to detail.
Each room is exactly like the world of Hercule Poirot.
The author Agatha Christie, who created the great detective Poirot, was born in Torquay, and her stories are often set in Devon, where Torquay is located, and the neighbouring county of Cornwall.
There are apparently many famous places themed around her in this area.
I was crazy about Poirot stories when I was in elementary school, and the TV drama Poirot is still one of our favourites, so I felt familiar with the Art Deco furniture of Coleton Fishacre.
However, it seems that this place has never been the setting for a story or a location for a drama or movie.
The garden of this mansion is also a highlight.
The spacious garden has different levels, a stream, and a lookout point overlooking the sea.
Unfortunately, it was a gloomy cloudy day, so the sea was grey and the view was not that impressive.
By the way, the friend who guided us gave us a book called “Agatha Christie’s Devon” as a souvenir.
Apparently her father is an expert on Christie.
It would be interesting to take a Christie-themed trip someday.
