Linley House

Linley House is a house, now offices, dating to circa 1730. It may have been designed by John Wood the Elder, although this is uncertain. The house is constructed of limestone ashlar, with the ground floor rendered and painted. It features a dentil cornice and parapet, and a pantile roof at the rear. The building is three storeys and a basement high, with dormers and attics at the rear which are not visible from the street. The front facade has a narrow three-window frontage, with six/six-pane sash windows with thicker glazing bars characteristic of the mid-18th century. All windows have rendered architraves. A smaller, fixed two-by-four-pane window is located to the left of the front door. The grand doorway has a six-panel door and an Ionic pilaster surround topped with pine cones. The rear elevation is constructed of rubble and exhibits single eight/eight-sash windows on each floor, along with a modern three-light steel casement in the attic mansard.

The interior is exceptionally rich, representing some of the finest surviving examples from before the period of John Wood the Elder’s primary work. The staircase has a straight flight running along the side wall, a cut string, three turned balusters with knops to each tread, and a mahogany rail. The drawing room (or music room) on the first floor features an enriched modillioned cornice and large-scale bas-relief decorations. These include scallop shells and foliage scrolls within L-shaped corner panels, flanking foliated cartouches, with a plain oval central panel featuring a cloud boss for a chandelier. The room also contains a modillion cornice, shell-headed recesses with masks, and a Regency fireplace. Another elaborate two-stage chimneypiece with a broken pedimented superstructure and shell-headed niches is also present. Elaborate decoration is found throughout the main floors.

Historically, this house stood on the Duke of Kingston’s estate and appears to have been built just before the major Parades development undertaken by John Wood the Elder (1740-1748). The design is noticeably different from Wood’s known streets, as are the adjacent properties. It was subsequently the home of Dr Thomas Linley, a musician and director of music at the Assembly Rooms, and his daughter, the singer Elizabeth Anne Linley, who eloped from the house with Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1772. From 1833 to 1846, it served as the Eye Infirmary.