Tucked between Tower House on Duke of York Street, Brown House and Somerled, Lyncliffe makes the most of a tiny lot measuring just 25 feet by 70 feet. Josiah Basden purchased the land in 1794 and the following year he or his brother Samuel erected the house which stands today.

A shipwright by trade, Samuel Basden died in 1828 and left the house to his six daughters. Two married but died without children and in 1844, Mary Murray, the only married survivor, sold her share to her single sisters. Of these, Margaret lived until 1907, having given Lyncliffe to Minnie Gray Tucker, later Clifford, in 1904. The three Basden sisters were very likely the old maids who are commemorated in Old Maid’s Lane, the alternative and more frequently used name for Duke of Cumberland Street. The building has several features typical of the late 18th century: a hip roof, symmetrical placement of windows, architraves over the ground floor windows and top-hung blinds.

The massive exterior chimney on the north side of the house is common to buildings of the period. The traces of mortar around the middle of the east side suggest that an entry porch may have been attached to this side when the front of the house faced east, a trait harking back to earlier vernacular building traditions.