8-20, Great Pulteney Street Bath, England

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GREAT PULTENEY STREET (North side) Nos.8-20 (Consec) (Formerly Listed as: GREAT PULTENEY STREET (North side) Nos 1-10, 10A, 11-40 (consec)) 12/06/50

GV I

Twelve terrace houses. 1789-1795. By Thomas Baldwin, John Eveleigh and others. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, double pitched hipped slate mansard roofs with paired dormers and moulded stacks to coped party walls. PLAN: Double depth plans. EXTERIOR: Three-storeys with attics, basements and sub-basements. Each house has three-window range. Continuous modillion cornice, frieze and fascia step very slightly forward over pedimented pavilions. Two houses flanking centre. Continuous moulded second and first floor sill string courses, grand order of Corinthian pilasters to some houses. Six/six-pane sash windows. Ground floor platband moulded to base over chamfered rustication with radial voussoirs to flat arches, plinth, raised and fielded eight-panel doors with large overlights. No. 8 has trellised balconettes to first floor and narrow pilasters supporting dentil cornice on consoles with paterae to frieze flanking double festoons over semicircular arched window with radial glazing bars to centre. Door to left. Upper windows of No. 9 are articulated by grand order of four pilasters. Door with ornate overlight to left. Nos. 9 and 10 have Vitruvian scroll band below second floor sills. No. 10 has door to right. No. 11 similar to No. 10 without scroll band. No. 12 similar to No. 8 with door to right. Nos. 13, 14 and 15, The Carfax Hotel, have windows replacing doors of Nos. 12 and 15. Door to right of No. 14 has later ornate cobweb overlight. No. 16 has door and cobweb overlight to right. No. 17 similar to No. 16 with pilaster to right. Nos. 18 and 19 are five-window symmetrical pair (three windows to No. 18 and two windows to No. 19) with paired pilasters to left and one and a half pilasters to right. Paired doors with cobweb overlights to centre below first floor window with narrow paired pilasters and consoles supporting triple-festoon frieze and pediment. No. 19 has balconettes to first floor. No. 20 similar to No. 8 with entrance in plain seven-window right return in Sunderland Street. Blind windows to two left hand ranges and second floor right. Prostyle Tuscan porch with cornice, blocking course and dentil strip, shallow enclosure to rear of porch has Tuscan pilasters flanking door and tall overlight and small windows to returns. INTERIORS: Not inspected. No. 10A partially inspected 1994. Early C19 stairs believed to have been inserted when house subdivided in C20. No. 12 partially inspected 1981 and has good Adamesque frieze ground floor front room with sideboard recess, an elliptical arch, marble fireplace. Very fine early C19 stone stairs with cast iron balustrade on each step and original deep frieze in hall. Rear room has original fireplace. No. 13 has a fine white and brown marble fireplace. No. 18 has a Georgian fireplace. The oval rooflight of No. 19 was `a curved dome¿ before the war. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: No. 14 has the remains of a Gothic coach house in the garden. HISTORY: Great Pulteney Street forms the principal element of the late C18 development of the Bathwick estate east of the River Avon. Laid out on an unusually generous scale, 100ft wide, it is one of the most imposing urban set-pieces of its day in Britain. Robert Adam prepared designs in 1782, but Thomas Baldwin was responsible for the eventual design. Leases were granted from 1788 but progress was delayed as a result of the building crash of the mid-1790s. It is recorded that the house on the corner of Sunderland Street (No. 20) was for sale unfinished following bankruptcy in September, 1794. Nos. 10A-11 formed the Chesterfield Hotel, having become a boarding house in 1954 and a hotel in 1973; they returned to residential use as maisonettes in 2000 (BCC planning file). Nos. 13-15 comprise the Carfax Hotel. No. 17 was sub-divided in 1963. Nos. 19-20 were united and converted to 7 units i