Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 03/07/2018
GREAT PULTENEY STREET (South side)
Nos.53-65 (Consec) and attached lamp standards to No.59
(Formerly Listed as: GREAT PULTENEY STREET (South side) No.41A. Nos 42-77 (consec))
12/06/50
GV
I
Thirteen symmetrical terrace houses. 1790-1794. By Thomas Baldwin, John Eveleigh and others.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, double pitched hipped slate mansard roofs with dormers and moulded stacks to party walls.
PLAN: Double depth plans.
EXTERIOR: Three storeys with attics and basements and sub-basements to rear, each house has three-window range. Continuous balustraded parapet with moulded coping, entablature with modillion cornice, moulded sill courses to upper floors, Vitruvian scroll band between upper floors (not returned), ground floor cornice and lintel frieze (returned), rusticated ground floor with radial voussoirs to semicircular arched recesses forming arcade with impost cornice and lintel frieze, and platband over plinth. Mostly six/six-pane sash windows, those to ground floor recesses with cobweb glazing and moulded sills, originally eight-panel doors with cobweb fanlights (many altered to six panels with stilted fanlights).
Ends (Nos 53 and 65) and centre (Nos 55-59) of cornice are set very slightly forward with bays articulated by grand order of fluted Corinthian pilasters rising from ground floor cornice, below cornice facade flat. Nos 55-59 are pedimented with Pulteney arms in tympanum.
Nos 53 and 54 to left are Duke's Hotel with main entrance in left return in Edward Street. Eight-window range return has coped parapet, cornice and returned ground floor cornice, blind windows to left hand range, two full height segmental bays to right with mostly blind windows, flat right-of-centre entrance range, horned plate glass sash windows to entrance range, centre of left hand bay and to sides of first floor of right hand bay, six/six-pane sashes to ground floor of left hand bay, steps up to double four-panel doors with margin lights and wide elaborate cobweb fanlight. Three-window front in Great Pulteney Street described above. First lease for house dated 1791.
No.55 has eight-panel door glazed to top under cobweb fanlight and scrolled overthrow with lampholder and plaque stating that Napoleon III stayed there. The door to No.56, a window at time of survey (2010), has been reinstated (2017). No.57 has six-panel door and late C19 cast iron balcony spanning first floor. No.58 has six-panel door and pilasters to upper floors. This was the home at some time of Fletcher Partis, the founder of Partis College, Newbridge Hill (qv). No.59 to centre has five-window range with pediment, fine balcony to first floor, eight-panel door with cobweb fanlight flanked by attached cast iron lozenge-trellised lamp standards and plaque stating the Bishop Thirlwall dwelt and died there 1874-1875. This centre house was probably originally intended for Sir William Johnstone Pulteney, the owner and developer of the estate. No.60 has eight-panel door and altered fanlight. No.61 has eight-panel door with plain fanlight. No.62 has six-panel door and attached scrolled overthrow. No.63 has eight-panel door and cobweb fanlight. No.64 has six-panel door and cobweb fanlight. No.65 right terminal has eight-panel door with cobweb fanlight and pilasters to upper floors.
INTERIORS: Numbers 53-54 were recorded by Bath Preservation Trust in the 1990s. The front door is divided into two panels, with a fanlight over the door. Many of the doors have been removed on the ground floor. The staircase has stone treads and two banisters per tread, wooden with painted metal inserted every other pair. A continuous mahogany veneer handrail from basement to third floor. Two curved false windows in the first floor room overlooking Edward Street.
Nos.53-54, formerly St Monica's Hotel, converted into residential use in 1966; returned to hotel use in c.1997.
Nos.55-59 formerly the Cleveland Hotel; converted to a residential home for the elderly in 1975, and in 2017 renovated into private apartments. Also during this renovation work evidence for two ballrooms or reception rooms were found in No 57.
No.60 inspected 1981 has early C19 white marble fireplaces, elaborate cornices with garlands.
No.61 sub-divided in 1991.
No.65 has original twelve panel window in hall and three Tudor arches in the old kitchen, now blocked.
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.
SOURCES: (Walter Ison: The Georgian Buildings of Bath: Bath: 1980-: 165; Bath City Council Planning files).
Listing NGR: ST7547765099
