Whiteknights

Whiteknights is a house dating from the mid-18th century, with alterations made in the late 19th century. The front and left side are rendered, while the rear is brick with an ashlar plinth. The gable features late 19th-century timber framing and the roof is covered with Lakeland slate. The building has two storeys and four bays, with the central two bays projecting under a gable. The right one-bay wing is part of No. 3 Belle Grove Place.

The projecting two bays have a door on the left within a corniced late 19th-century porch. There are canted bays in the left wing and to the right of the door. The first floor features sash windows, with the central bays having longer windows, and the longest window is on the right. Some windows are blocked, and there are late 19th-century glazing bars. The late 19th-century gable over the center has an oriel window and two oeuil-de-boeuf windows, and there is a conservatory at the right corner. The ridge chimneys are rendered.

Inside, the staircase has a ramped handrail on turned balusters and a ramped dado rail. There is a simpler servants' stair with square balusters leading from the top landing to the attics. Original architraves and some two-panelled doors are found on the second floor and in the attics. The principal room on the ground floor to the left is panelled and features a high-quality rococo stucco ceiling and frieze with garlands, as well as shell ornamentation above the door and a glazed cupboard with astragals. The chimney has egg-and-dart and Greek key moulding. The right room and entrance hall have dentilled cornices, and the stair ceiling features a central leaf-and-rose roundel with a moulded cornice.

Historically, the house is documented to 1751 and became a hospital in 1766, later serving as a private asylum in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, known as St. Luke's Hospital and Belle Grove Retreat, originally called New House.