Linley Sambourne House

Linley Sambourne House

This is a mid-terrace townhouse of three storeys plus basement and attic, built in stock brick and stucco with a slated mansard roof. It is one of the substantial mid-Victorian townhouses that make up Stafford Terrace, a street characterised by Italianate stucco ornamentation.

The house is arranged in two unequal bays, with the narrower bay to the left containing the entrance. This entrance is raised up a short flight of steps flanked by urns and is set within a porch with channelled rustication, Doric half-columns, dentil cornice and balustrade. To the right rises a polygonal bay window, also featuring similar rustication, cornices and balustrade, which extends from the basement through to the first floor. The ground floor dining room window has a large fern case attached to it, while a smaller fern case adorns the pedimented first-floor window above the entrance. The facade is crowned by a rich cornice displaying wave-scrolls and dentils, with a balustrade above. In the attic are segmental-headed dormers.

The rear elevation overlooks a small back yard and is plain, with only a simple balustrade by way of ornament. It bears marks of various phases of alteration. The large leaded mullion-and-transom windows on the left belong to a rear extension of 1875. On the right, above steps leading down from the hall door, is a glazed water feature, also of 1875, with a bathroom extension added in the 1960s above this.

The plan of the house is consistent on each floor, with the hall and staircase positioned to the left and principal rooms to the right. The basement formerly contained the kitchen, wine cellar and pantry, with a rear passage leading to the garden. The raised ground floor contains the dining room (front) and morning room (back), the latter extended outwards by about three feet in 1875. The first floor was opened up prior to the Sambournes' arrival to create a single front-to-back drawing room. The second floor contains the two main bedrooms and a bathroom. The attic houses Linley Sambourne's studio and a maid's bedroom.

The principal rooms were opulently furnished and decorated by Linley Sambourne according to the Aesthetic taste of the late nineteenth century. Patterned papers, mainly by Morris & Co., were hung on walls and ceilings, with existing plasterwork, fireplaces and skirtings painted in rich greens and golds. The décor was gradually renewed during Linley's ownership, with original Morris papers giving way to more expensive embossed hangings; in some rooms both phases survive side by side. Some wallpapers were renewed in 1912, with others replaced by the Countess of Rosse in the 1960s and 70s.

The entrance hall has a mosaic tiled floor and wallpaper by Cole & Son, installed in the 1960s. Skirtings are marbled, and the dado bears a painted Greek key design. Stone stairs feature an ornamental cast-iron balustrade and scrolled hardwood handrail. To the rear is a small lavatory with built-in cupboards and a tip-up basin. The first-floor landing has stained glass bearing Linley and Marion Sambourne's joint monogram (LMS), with a small fountain in a glazed recess below.

The dining room's main wallpaper is a modified Morris Pomegranate design installed in the 1960s, though the frieze area above the plate rail and ceiling retain gilded and embossed papers from the 1870s and 80s. The bay window contains stained-glass panels depicting Ariel and Titania. The hall door has elaborate cutwork fingerplates, with panels bearing painted palm-tree designs by Linley himself.

The morning room is Marion Sambourne's special preserve and is the only room to retain all its original Morris wallpaper: Diaper above the plate rail and Pomegranate below. Door panels are painted with a design of foxgloves and butterflies. The rear part of this room was extended outwards in 1875 to create a shallow curtained alcove; the back wall is almost entirely window, with heraldic escutcheons including Linley Sambourne's own self-devised arms rendered in stained glass.

The drawing room runs the full depth of the house and at the front its full width, and is the most opulently decorated and furnished of all the interiors. Walls were initially papered with Morris Larkspur design; around 1884 this was overlaid with the present gilded and embossed paper, though this expensive material was only used where the wall face was exposed, allowing the original paper to remain visible behind pictures. The door has embossed brass panels bearing the Sambourne arms. There are two large marble fireplaces with rich scroll-brackets. The rear extension originally served as Linley's studio before he moved his activities to the attic; the window here has stained glass depicting birds and palm-fronds in the outer lights.

The principal bedroom, Linley and Marion's bedroom, was redecorated and refitted by Maples in 1887. Japanese paper that lined the main walls was replaced with Morris Norwich design in the 1960s, but the rest of the scheme survives. This includes a large chimneypiece with blue and white tiles around the grate, a fitted wardrobe in gilded and ebonised wood, a large marble washstand and a Neoclassical lincrusta frieze.

The spare bedroom, which was Roy Sambourne's bedroom for much of his life, is hung with embossed and painted wallpaper installed in 1899, and contains a small blue-and-white tiled fireplace and a marble washstand. The upper window light contains stained glass showing birds against a sunburst.

The bathroom was extended and refitted in the 1960s; present fittings mostly date from 1980s restoration, although the original marble-lined bath still survives, later used to develop photographs with a folding ledge installed for this purpose.

The studio was originally the night nursery and later Maud Sambourne's studio and sitting room. In 1899 Linley moved his studio out of the drawing-room recess and fitted this room for the purpose, installing bookshelves and overmantel and hanging embossed paper; the latter was removed in the 1960s and has now been restored.

The maid's room has a small fireplace with simple timber surround, original to the space. Morris Willow paper was put up in the 1960s. Service bells are located in the hallway outside this room.

The basement rooms, once the kitchen, wine cellar and pantry, have been much altered; one surviving feature is a row of service bells in the side corridor.