Behind guarded gates on one of London's historic squares is the empty former home of the only British prime minister to be assassinated.
Spencer Perceval governed the country during the Napoleonic wars and helped usher in the Regency era so colourfully dramatised in the Netflix drama Bridgerton.
But his life came to a dramatic end in May 1812 when he was shot through the heart inside the Houses of Parliament.
Perceval moved into Lindsey House at 59 Lincolns Inn Fields in July 1792 as he was building his legal career, and later acquired the neighbouring No. 60.
The plaque on the once grand Grade I listed town house is made of bronze instead of blue ceramic and was put up in 1914 by London County Council.
Perceval was born into the British aristocracy in 1762. But while his position as the younger son of the Earl of Egmont gave him impeccable connections, as the second son of his father’s second marriage, he didn't inherit enough to live on.
With an allowance of just £200 a year, he had to make his own way, and after a first class education at Harrow School then Trinity College, Cambridge, he studied law at Lincoln’s Inn and was called to the bar in 1786.
He worked as a barrister and became King’s Counsel in 1796 - the same year that he entered Parliament as the MP for Northampton.
He followed the political ideas of William Pitt the Younger, supported the war against Napoleon, and rose swiftly to become first Solicitor General, then Attorney General for England and Wales.
When Pitt died in January 1806, Perceval acted as a bearer at his funeral and although he had limited funds, he gave £1,000 to pay Pitt’s debts.
In 1807, he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader of the House of Commons and two years later he achieved the highest office in the land as prime minister.
For the next three years he led Britain through the Napoleonic Peninsular wars, the Luddite riots, the mental illness of King George III, and major political crises including economic depression.
He helped solve the crisis in 1810 when King George III was unable to carry out his duties - Parliament passed the Regency Act making the Prince of Wales the Prince Regent.
A devout evangelical Christian, he supported the abolition of slavery and the ending of the Atlantic slave trade, but opposed Catholic emancipation.
Outside politics, Perceval and his older brother Charles fell in love with two sisters who were living in their childhood home of Charlton in Kent.
But in a plot line that could come straight from Bridgerton, their father Sir Thomas Wilson approved the match with the wealthy titled older brother, but objected to his daughter Jane marrying the penniless Perceval.
They couple eloped in August 1790 on her 21st birthday, and went on to have 12 children.
On May 11, 1812, Perceval entered the lobby of the House of Commons where a bankrupt merchant called John Bellingham stepped forward, drew a concealed pistol from his coat, and shot him in the chest at close range.
Perceval collapsed and died within minutes, and Bellingham who blamed the British government for failing to compensate him after he was falsely imprisoned in Russia, calmly sat down awaiting arrest.
Bellingham was put on trial, swiftly found guilty, and hanged at Newgate Prison one week after the assassination.
Perceval was buried at St Luke’s Church in Charlton and his former home, which is privately owned, now stands empty and neglected.
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