Description

PIERREPONT PLACE
656-1/41/1251
No.1 Linley House
(Formerly Listed as: PIERREPONT PLACE No.1)
12/06/50

GV II*

House, now offices. c1730. Possibly John Wood the Elder, but see below.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, rendered and painted on ground floor, dentil cornice, parapet, roof not visible from street, but pantile at rear.
PLAN: Single depth with projecting rear wing built together with No.12 Pierrepont Street(qv).
EXTERIOR: Three storeys and basement, presumably dormers and attics, but not visible, except at rear. Narrow three window frontage, all windows six/six-sashes with thicker glazing bars of mid C18, all with rendered architraves. Smaller window to left of front door, fixed, two x four. Grand doorway with six-panel door, Ionic pilaster surround capped by pine cones. Rear elevation rubble, single eight/eight-sash to each floor, modern steel three light casement in attic mansard.
INTERIOR: Among the most richly appointed interiors to survive from the pre-Wood era. Staircase has long straight flight up side wall, cut string, three turned balusters with knops to each tread, mahogany rail. `The drawing room (or music room, at the front of the first floor) ceiling is surrounded by an enriched modillioned cornice, and adorned with large scale decorations modelled in bas-relief. Scallop shells and foliage scrolls are enclosed within the L-shaped corner panels, between which are foliated cartouches, while the oval central panel is plain apart from the boss of cloud from which the chandelier is suspended' (Ison). This room also has a modillion cornice, shell-headed recesses with masks, and a Regency fireplace. There is also an elaborate two-stage chimneypiece with a broken pedimented superstructure flanked by further shell-headed niches (Mowbray Green photos in the National Monuments Record). The elaborate decoration is found throughout the main floors.
HISTORY: This house, standing on the Duke of Kingston¿s estate, looks to date from just before the main Parades development of John Wood the Elder (1740-1748), and the documentation is unclear as to whether he designed it. It seems significantly different in design from his known streets, as do the adjoining houses (qqv). Subsequently the home of Dr Thomas Linley, musician and director of music at the Assembly Rooms, and his daughter the beautiful singer Elizabeth Anne Linley, who eloped from this house with Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1772. It was the Eye Infirmary from 1833-1846.

Listing NGR: ST7521764645

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532062

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

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)