Lululaund

Lululaund was the Romanesque Revival-style house and studio of the Bavarian-born British artist Hubert von Herkomer, in Melbourne Road, Bushey, Hertfordshire.

In early 1886, he painted the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson in exchange for a house design he could bring back to Britain.

Richardson, at the peak of his career and only months before his death at the age of 47, sketched a single picture of a four-storey Romanesque castle, explicitly allowing Herkomer to change the exterior "at will".

A plinth of courses of rugged stone formed the lower level, while above was a wide segmental arch across most of the frontage, framed by two round turreted towers.

A tower rising above the front door was truncated during its construction when Herkomer discovered it would obstruct light into his studio.

The rooms were in German gothic style, extravagantly decorated with elaborate wood carvings executed by himself and members of his family.

[4] The house was, for its time, built to a very high technical standard, had for instance electricity from its own generator (in a sidehouse), as well as hot and cold water in each bedroom.

It is possible that anti-German feeling[2] and the fear it was an elevated landmark and a navigational marker for enemy bombers influenced the decision.

A small portion of Richardson's façade survived: the front door and its tympanum were used for the entrance to the former Royal British Legion hall on Melbourne Road, Bushey.

"[3] His biographer, Baldry, wrote in 1901: "There has been in existence in his family for some generations an idea that there should be erected some day a house which would be at the same time a memorial of the Herkomers and a record of the work that they had done in the world.

The wide segmental arch across most of the frontage; c. 1910
British Legion hall (2009). The arched entrance-way in the c. 1900 photo of Lululaund
Dining room, 'Human Sympathy', a frieze in painted relief; c. 1901