Buxton-born Robert Stevenson directed films including Jane Eyre, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing and Herbie Rides Again. He was nominated for Best Director at the 1965 Academy Awards for the 1964 film Mary Poppins. George Cukor won the directing award for My Fair Lady; Julie Andrews won Best Actress for Mary Poppins.
Not to be confused with the Scottish engineer Robert Stevenson or the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, the director adapted the latter’s Kidnapped in 1960. According to Buxton Film’s biography, his family lived on Park Road before moving to London by 1911. He later won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, and began writing for films. He directed British productions including King Solomon’s Mines, moved to Hollywood in 1939 and died in California in 1986, aged 81.
This 2019 article reported a proposal for a blue plaque commemorating Stevenson on Park Road. A plaque nearby commemorates writer Vera Brittain.
Park Road is also close to the cricket ground where snow prevented play on 2 June 1975. Gateposts on Carlisle Road mark the former entrance to the Empire Hotel, which the council records as demolished in 1964.
Darcus Wolfson
With thanks to Leslie Oldfield
Advertisement
