Details
ST JOHN'S PLACE
656-1/40/1562 (West side)
No.9 Beau Nash's house, with railings
(Formerly Listed as: ST JOHN'S PLACE No.9)
12/06/50
GV II*
House, formerly detached. Now restaurant. c1720 by Thomas Greenway.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, slate mansard roof.
PLAN: Plain rectangular plan, with steep mansard roof. House now abuts later development at north end.
EXTERIOR: Two storeys, attic and basement, central entrance on narrow three bay south front; five bay east front to Saw Close. Entrance consists of a large six-panel fielded door with glazed arched head, in channelled surround and voussoirs, and with fine engaged three-quarter column unfluted Corinthian doorcase to fully embellished entablature including paterae to frieze, and carrying two embellished panelled pedestals with eagles on hemispheres. Windows all glazing-bar sashes, with shaped gable containing two twelve-pane, above three eighteen-pane with at first floor deeper eighteen-pane, but that to left of doorway blind, all these in raised plat surrounds with edge moulds. Moulded plinth, ground floor sill band, cornice, stopped each side of the doorway, first floor sill band, crowning entablature, and coped parapet, all trim detail returned to east front. Parapet swept down, three close-spaced twelve-pane dormers, above eighteen-pane sash in surrounds as to the front, but bay two blind at each level, and bay one at first floor painted, basement has two lights and door. Return has deep stack, and second stack forward on mansard above bay two.
INTERIOR: Not inspected, but former list refers to large principal first floor room, with painted softwood panelling and modillion box cornice (Mowbray Green photo in National Monument Record. See W. Ison for description).
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Very narrow basement area enclosed by simple iron railings on stone curb, entrance front mainly concealed by outer foyer to Theatre Royal (qv).
HISTORY: Large detached house, part of the development in St John's Close by Thomas Greenway, and built on the site of the city's refuse pit just beyond the western walls of the town. It gained great renown through its occupancy by Beau Nash, Master of Ceremonies. The blind ground floor window has a modern painted inscription recording that this was: "Home of Beau Nash and his handsome and faithful mistress Juliana Popjoy .... until (his) death in 1761, aged 86". The South entrance front was originally embellished with statues, eagles and an urn on the parapet (see reconstruction drawing in Ison, based on 1836 drawing by Buckler) Wood described Greenway's work as "the Palace of the King of Bath...the richest Sample of Building, till then executed, in the City....", but was critical of the profusion of ornament. The original appearance has been compromised by the entrance portico to the Theatre Royal. A notable example of a late Baroque town house with strong historical connections.
SOURCES: Walter Ison, 'The Georgian Buildings of Bath' (2nd ed. 1980, 106-08; Charles Robertson, 'Bath an Architectural Guide' (1975), 52-53.
Listing NGR: ST7486264854
