Pump Room Bath, England

Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

ABBEY CHURCH YARD (South side)

Grand Pump Room (Formerly Listed as: Grand Pump Room) 12/06/50 GV I

Spa Pump Room. 1789-1799. By Thomas Baldwin, completed by John Palmer. MATERIALS: Bath limestone ashlar, triple pitched hipped slate roof, not visible from street. PLAN: Rectangular single cell plan with small flanking rooms. EXTERIOR: Northern elevation onto Abbey Church Yard by Palmer, altering Baldwin¿s original design. two storeys and basement, seven bays, arranged one:five:one, with ends set slightly forward, and centrepiece of four engaged Corinthian columns with entablature and pediment. The pediment contains a wreathed blind bull's eye, and the entablature carries the inscription Water is best' in Greek. Windows in two storeys, upper ones in centre five bays being oval and set in rectangular panels similar to Banqueting Room at the Guildhall (qv). Ground floor of five centre bays have twelve/twelve sashes flanking central recessed arched entrance with twelve-pane French doors and fanlight over, window joinery is all mid C20 restoration. Wrought-iron area railings carry four lanterns on standards. End bays break forward slightly, that on west receives end of previously built colonnade, and that at east end contains principal entrance with coupled Ionic pilasters and pediment. Windows over in arched recesses, original twelve/twelve sashes, semicircular fanlights over. Balustraded aprons. Lintel band continuous with entablature of pediment and going right round building except for small breaks. Entablature and parapet, with blind balusters in panels over windows. The west, or Stall Street elevation is as Baldwin designed it and has to be seen as a part of a more monumental design incorporating the screens on either side, North and South Colonnade, (qv), and facing onto Bath Street (qv). All these were also designed by Baldwin and are roughly contemporary, but the north screen was already in position when the building of the Pump Room began. The wall is blind, but heavily modelled, comprising one of the most elaborate displays of masonry in Bath. It has a rusticated and vermiculated basement with four roundels. Above this it is in three bays articulated by eight paired 3/4 attached Corinthian columns. The column bases stand on a broad panelled band-course. Between the columns are three semicircular arched niches with balustraded aprons, over each of which are pediments on consoles, with swagged bands below. The whole surmounted by parapet with cornice and blind baluster panels corresponding to the niches below. South elevation: has had some remodelling over the years. It has three storeys and a lower storey looking into the King's Bath (qv). two window wings project forward on either side, all six over six sashes. The centre has as its chief feature the semi-circular glass domed oriel, which contains the fountain within the Pump Room. This was an addition by Major Charles Davis in 1888, but his design has been replaced by an oriel of moreGeorgian' appearance. This has three sixteen light windows with stone mullions between. The ashlar wall has otherwise panels and bands with two twelve over twelve sashes in enlarged openings. The second storey has five oval windows in rectangular recesses, as north front, blind attic above, cornice and parapet continued round from other fronts. East elevation: is blind and mostly obscured by the adjoining Concert Room (qv). It has bands, a large arch, cornice and parapet. This front was wholly obscured until adjoining demolitions and the building of the Concert Room by JM Brydon in 1897. INTERIOR: Hall 18m by 14m by 10m (60 ft by 46 ft by 34 ft high) with apsed ends and four small ante-rooms at corners. Giant Corinthian order of attached fluted columns, half to sides and quarter to corners. The long walls are divided into five bays, each with a window and a clerestory window on the north wall; and window, fireplace, fountain, fireplace, window, each with a clerestor