Details
KINGSMEAD SQUARE
(South side)
Nos.5-10 (Consec)
with railings
12/06/50
GV
II
Five terrace houses. c1730. By John Strahan, altered C19, damaged 1942, restored 1974-1975.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar fronts, rubble and ashlar rear, double Roman tile front and slate rear roofs.
PLAN: Consistent row, with minor variations in detail, with very deep mansard roof, some rear additions in reconstruction of terrace after bomb damage and neglect.
EXTERIOR: Three storeys, attic and basement, each three windows, all deep eighteen-pane sashes with thick glazing bars, in moulded architraves. Nos 5,6 and 7 have keystones rising to ground floor cornice and first floor platband, and right hand bay to No.5 has blind lights. No.7 also has aprons below sills, and Nos 7 and 8 have each two twelve-pane sashes to basement, with small area enclosed by railings. Nos 8,9 and 10 have moulded cornices at both ground and first floor levels. Carved in capitals below first floor windows of No.8 is the name `KINGS - MEAD - SQUARE'. Eleven dormers, each with paired small-pane casements. Doors are all eight-panel, in moulded architraves, with keystone and flat moulded hood to Nos 5,6 and 7, and to pediments on brackets to Nos 8,9 and 10. At each end plain pilaster quoin, and channelled pilasters framing No.7. three lead downpipes with hopperheads, and five deep stacks. Moulded cornice with shallow blocking course and parapet crowns whole front. Return, left, to Avon Street, three bays, with eighteen-pane sashes in plain reveals, ground floor door flanked by paired sash, left, and single, right, two dormers, simple string at two levels, and small cornice. Return to Trinity Street has two sashes to right, above central door flanked by sash, left, and small light to right. Rear, mainly in rubble, has some dormers with casements, and eighteen-pane sashes at three levels. No.7 deeper than adjoining houses, and has stair sash with radial head, and houses at this end of group have straight drip courses over ground and first floor windows. Nos 8,9 and 10 have mid C20 extension to flat roofs.
INTERIORS: Not inspected, but it is reported that Nos 7 and 8 have shell niches, Nos 7,8 and 10 have Georgian fireplaces, and Nos 6,7,8 and 10 have good staircases, with columnar newels, turned balusters three per stair tread, with panelling to walls (photos of Nos.7 and 8 in the National Monument Record).
HISTORY: This terrace was in severe decline (see Ison, Pl 55b), and suffered some bomb damage in 1942; it was even threatened by demolition after the War, but has been carefully restored, so that it now presents to the Square a frontage as intended by Strahan, and is the best side to the ensemble. John Wood, jealous of Strahan, was dismissive of the architectural quality, saying, for instance that ".... the Houses in King's Mead Square have nothing, save Ornaments without Taste, to please the Eye".
SOURCES: (Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bath: London: 1948-: 133; Colvin H: A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1840: London: 1978-: 757; Bath Archaeological Trust/RCHM England: Georgian Bath Historical Map: Southampton: 1989-; Orbach J: Card Index of Bath Architects and Streets: 1978-).
Listing NGR: ST7481464731
