General Wade's House
GENERAL WADE'S HOUSE, 14, ABBEY CHURCH YARD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1394012
- Date first listed:
- 12-Jun-1950
- List Entry Name:
- General Wade's House
- Statutory Address:
- GENERAL WADE'S HOUSE, 14, ABBEY CHURCH YARD
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1394012
- Date first listed:
- 12-Jun-1950
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 15-Oct-2010
- List Entry Name:
- General Wade's House
- Statutory Address 1:
- GENERAL WADE'S HOUSE, 14, ABBEY CHURCH YARD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- GENERAL WADE'S HOUSE, 14, ABBEY CHURCH YARD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Bath and North East Somerset (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- ST 75078 64782
Details
ABBEY CHURCH YARD (North side)
12/06/50 No. 14 General Wade's House
GV I
House, now with shop. c1720, shop inserted early C19, restored 1976 by David Brain and Derek Stollar. MATERIALS: Bath limestone ashlar, roof not visible. PLAN: Single-depth house with windows only on the south facade, back-to-back with No.15 Cheap Street (qv). EXTERIOR: Three storeys with cellars and full height attic, four bays. The ground floor has a shopfront of Regency character of which most is certainly of genuinely 1820-1830 date, shown as now but with plate glass windows in pre WWII photograph (Ison). Double-fronted shop with panelled house door to left. Pilasters frame doorway and shopfront, under continuous fascia. Giant fluted Ionic order through first and second floors support entablature with a pulvinated frieze and modillion cornice. All windows are late C18 type sashes, nine/twelve on the first floor, six/nine on the second floor, six/six in the attic. The first floor windows, and probably those on the second floor have had the sills dropped; windows are set within bolection-moulded architraves, with floral garlands suspended at second floor level. The attic has panelled pilasters cornice and parapet surmounted by three vases. Ashlar end stacks with pots. INTERIOR: Not inspected. According to Green, `except some simple panelling in an upper storey, nothing of interest remains in the house¿. The ground and first floors, together with the staircase, date from the recent conversion of the lower floors into a shop for the National Trust. HISTORY: This house has long been connected with General (later Field-Marshal) George Wade (1673-1748) who was MP for Bath from 1722 until his death (see bronze plaque), but recent study suggests that the connection is unfounded. The house has thus been erroneously attributed to Lord Burlington, and to Colen Campbell, on the basis that they designed Wade's house in Old Burlington Street, London (a thoroughly Palladian affair). This stylistically transitional elevation is in the local Baroque manner, but with elements of a more correct form of classicism. It is also the first appearance of the Palladian use of a giant order in Bath, and is an outstanding example of an early Georgian town house. Following the installation of the shopfront it became the `Repository of works for Industry' (Bath Directory, 1832). Late C19 photographs in the National Monuments Record show it in c1900 as the Bible Society's Depot, with the Religious Tract Society occupying the ground floor. This is now used as a National Trust shop. SOURCES: RCHME Report at National Monuments Record, Swindon ref. 78259; Mowbray Green, `The Eighteenth Century Architecture of Bath¿ (1904), pl iii and 12; Walter Ison, `The Georgian Buildings of Bath¿ (2nd ed. 1980), 108; Graham Finch, `Shopfront Record¿ (Bath City Council) 1992.
Listing NGR: ST7507864782
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 509404
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 22-Jun-2026 at 06:55:48.
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