Sunday, 20 July 2008
Access to the first, the principal, floor is by the magnificent staircase which rises from the vestibule. In Paine's original design, the staircase was at the rear of the building, and directly above it was a Venetian window, complementary to the window at the front of the house. This was altered, as we will see later, in 1864.
The simple plan of the first floor of Paine's building follows that adopted in public assembly rooms in other eighteenth-century towns. In this standard plan there are three rooms: a card room, a tea room and a ballroom. Paine placed his grand 'banquetting room' so that it extended along the entire High Street frontage of the house, flanked to right and left by the two subsidiary rooms. The card room, on the right, is entered by a vestible which also contains the backstairs, the means by which the servants moved from floor to floor. This placing of the backstairs was an inconvenient arrangement and in the alterations by William Lindley in 1806, the backstairs were removed and new access stairs for servants were built at the rear of the new dining room.
