The Lee Priory Gothic Room 1783-1794

Techniques & Materials: Pinewood, carved, painted and plaster.

Design Name: Designed by James Wyatt (born in Weeford Staffordshire, 1746, died near Marlborough, Wiltshire, 1813); made by an unidentified carver.

Object Type: Lee Priory, a house originally built in the 17th Century and decorated between 1783 and about 1790 when it was remodelled. This is a rare example of a room decorated in the Gothic Revival style of the 18th Century. The house was altered again in the 19th Century and the architectural parts of the room were either given to the Victoria and Albert Museum (The Strawberry Room) or sold when the house was demolished in 1953.

People: Horace Walpole influenced the style of the room as he was a friend of the owner, Thomas Barrett. Walpole had already altered his own house at Strawberry Hill near London in the Gothic style and he wrote about Lee Priory, 'You will see a child of Strawberry prettier than the parent… There is a delicious closet, too, so flattering to me'.

Design Designing: The room's architect, James Wyatt, was adventurous and eccentric and excelled at the Gothic Style so admired during this period. Wyatt designed the ceiling with applied wooden tracery in imitation of stone fan-vaulting seen in Medieval churches. The woodwork was painted a pale stone colour.

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