NAIPAUL’S LION HOUSE FALLING APART

THE famous Lion House – celebrated in author V.S. Naipaul’s seminal book A House for Ms. Biswas – is falling apart.

“Bushes are pushing through the foundation,” Trinidad and Tobago journalist and author Ira Mathur wrote, and “if you enter, it is at your peril.”

“A wall may crumble, and you could fall through the floor,” Mathur wrote.

She said there are cracks, with moss on the floor.

Academic Kenneth Ramchand, who heads a community group Friends of Mr. Biswas, confirmed the current state of Naipaul’s ancestral home.

The house, which is on the Chaguanas Main Road, was designed by Naipaul’s great grandfather, known as Pundit Capildeo, a businessman and landowner.

The house, built over the period 1924 and 1926, was also popular for its design, described as “architecturally unique.”

Historians say the house was also a meeting point for travellers and a de facto community centre for villagers from the district.

Naipaul gave a depiction of the house in A House for Mr. Biswas.

Several members of the Naipaul clan lived in the famous house.