Sycamore Lodge

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