Sudley House is a historic house in Aigburth, Liverpool, England. Built in 1824 and much modified in the 1880s, it is now a museum and art gallery which contains the collection of George Holt, a shipping-line owner and former resident, in its original setting. It includes work by Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, Edwin Landseer, John Everett Millais and J. M. W. Turner. The house was bequeathed to the city of Liverpool by Holt's daughter, Emma Georgina Holt, in 1944 and is managed by National Museums Liverpool. History Structure Sudley, as it was originally known, was completed in 1824 on land formerly owned by the Tarleton family as a two-storey ashlar house for Nicholas Robinson, a corn merchant who was Lord Mayor of Liverpool in 1828–29. Robinson paid £4500 for the land. Upon the death of Robinson in 1854, the house passed to his two daughters, who died in 1883. The house and estate, comprising just under , was put up for sale in 1880. It became the home of Victorian shipping-line owner and merchant George Holt in 1884. Pevsner says that the original design was probably by John Whiteside Casson and was modified by James Rhind when Holt purchased it. However, National Museums Liverpool say that the original architect is unknown, although there are features that suggest it may have been Thomas Harrison. The structural modifications, which involved moving the main entrance from the east facade to that of the north and also adding an office wing on the west, have significantly affected the interior. The original staircase with Doric fluted columns, above which is a dome and glazed oculus, became exposed and, according to Pevsner, this has left the surrounding internal features as "a bit of a mess". The new two-storey wing added two bays to the five that already existed on the south side, as well as a parapeted prospect tower to its rear. Art and life George Holt was an art collector whose collection derived mainly from purchases from dealers and at exhibitions rather than from commissions. Among his most significant purchases, which remain in the house today, were J. M. W. Turner's Rosenau, depicting Prince Albert's home in Germany, and Gainborough's Viscountess Folkestone. Also among the collection are paintings by Richard Parkes Bonington, Edwin Landseer, John Everett Millais, Joshua Reynolds, George Romney and the Pre-Raphaelites. George Melly, the jazz singer, critic and art historian, who was