Description

LEEDS

SE2935 WOODHOUSE CLIFF, Woodhouse
714-1/24/1264 (North side)
No.7A
Sycamore Lodge

GV II

House, now offices. c1860, late C20 conversion to offices. Red
brick, stretcher bond, ashlar details, slate roof. 2 storeys,
3 bays, the central entrance bay having a 3-storey tower with
entrance in right return and the right bay set back. Quoins.
Italianate style.
Modern double entrance doors in round arch with rusticated
voussoirs and female head carved on keystone; tower windows
are single and paired round arches, the top storey with stone
bracketed balcony and cast-iron rail; bracketed eaves, pyramid
roof, ornate cast-iron finial; carved stone plaque above
1st-floor window depicts a sailing ship and the motto, 'TUTUS
IN UNDIS' ('safety on the waves') and initials 'EW'. Bays 1
and 3 have a canted bay window with pedimented blocking course
to ground floor and a segmental-arched sash in architrave with
console brackets and cornice with carved plaque to 1st floor.
Left bay gabled; deep bracketed eaves, end stacks. Left
return: 3 uneven bays, the centre breaks forward and is
rendered; single light to ground floor, the 3 first-floor
windows in round-arched architraves.
INTERIOR: entrance lobby and stair hall: egg-and-dart
mouldings and moulded ceiling cornices, 6-panel doors, oak
staircase with carved newel.
'EW' was probably Edward Wood, a manufacturing chemist whose
house was at Woodhouse Cliff in 1866 (directory). He was a
partner in the firm of Wood and Bedford of No.27 Kirkstall
Road (not included), and James Bedford's address was Sycamore
Lodge in the 1873 directory. In October 1876 James and his
brother Charles made reputedly the first telephone
conversation in Britain between the upper floor and the
outhouse ('Woodhouse Remembered', p10). James Bedford was
still at Sycamore Lodge in 1881, the architect Francis Bedford
was a member of this family.
(White's Directory of Leeds, Bradford, etc: 1866-; Porter's
Directory of Leeds: 1872-1873: 33; Kelly's Directory of Leeds:
1881-; Woodhouse Local History Group: Woodhouse Remembered:
1991-: 10).

Listing NGR: SE2914535597

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26547259

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living