31-40, ST JAMES'S PARADE

Details

ST JAMES'S PARADE 656-1/40/2461 (North East side) Nos.31-40 (Consec)

(Formerly Listed as: ST JAMES'S PARADE (North East side) Nos 31-46 (consec) & No.47 (Talbot Public House)) 12/06/50

GV II

Ten terrace houses, now redeveloped as flats with one main entrance to whole block. 1768. Probably by Thomas Jelly and John Palmer (but see below), Nos 39 and 40 may be by John Eveleigh. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, painted to ground floor, Nos 31-37 have pantiled roofs and Nos 38-40 have Welsh slate roofs. PLAN: Double depth houses with entrances on left except No.40, but site wedge-shaped so Nos 31 and 40 are oddly planned. EXTERIOR: Three storeys, attic and basement, these last are completely below street level, one:eight:two windows to whole terrace at first floor level (No 31 has 2). Ground floor single or paired sash windows except for No.31 has small paned shop window recessed below lintel. First floor platband, stepped between Nos 36 and 37. Doors are six-panel in pedimented Roman Doric surrounds (except Nos 39 and 40, see below). First floor windows are Venetian with sills on console brackets and cornice hoods except for Nos 31 and 40. Second floor windows tripartite sashes except for Nos 31 and 40. Modillion cornice, stepped between Nos 36 and 37, parapet, mansard roof with dormers and ashlar stack with pots to right. No.31 wedge shaped, ground floor has small paned shop window recessed below lintel, entrance on left. Corner to right has six/six sash in architrave surround. First floor has two six/six sashes in architrave surrounds, cornice heads and console bracketed sills. Corner to right has blind window same. Second floor as first floor but without cornice heads and brackets. Paired dormer with plain sashes, tall stack around corner. Elevation to Wine Street has plain window in each floor. No.32 has two/two sash on ground floor, standard windows above, but without glazing bars. Two dormers with plain sashes. No.33 has two/two sash to ground floor, and six/six sashes flanked by four/four on floors above. Paired dormer with three/six sashes. Bust of Britannia (repaired 1981) over entrance. No.34 has eight/eight sash to ground floor, as No.33 above. Nos 35 and 36 as 34 but No.36 has an iron balconette on first floor. No.37 as No.33 but with paired plain sashes to ground floor, and plain sashes to two separate dormers. No.38 as No.37 but has six/six sashes to ground floor No.39 as No.37 but with single plain dormer and paired pedimented doorcase with No.40, half columns have `Tower of the Winds' capitals. No.40 wedge shaped. Street front has plain sash and doorway shared with No.39 above. Upper windows as No.31. Two plain dormers. End elevation has plain sash to ground floor, and plain six/six sashes above. Stack to rear. Rear elevation not seen. INTERIORS: Not inspected, but past site visit notes report the following. No 31: much altered. No 32: stairs, cornices in situ. No 33: stairs gone. No 34; stairs gone. No 35: closed string stairs. No 36: stairs gone. No 37: closed string stairs, some cornices. No 38: staircase survives in part; modillion cornices. No 39: open-string stair, cornices, doors. HISTORY: St James's Parade, originally Thomas Street, was the centrepiece of a development from 1765 onwards by Richard Jones, Thomas Jelly and Henry Fisher who were granted liberty in September 1765 to 'pull down the Boro' walls next to the Ambry gardens in order to build new houses there'. The street was closed off with bollards at each end, and the houses fronted a broad paved walk in place of the road. The elevations, attributed to Thomas Jelly and John Palmer, show the influence of John Wood the Younger's work elsewhere, as in Rivers Street. The houses were mainly built in c.1768. Following bomb damage in the area, extensive clearance and redevelopment has taken place. St James's Parade, after an uncertain period, was reprieved. Although developed and most probably designed by Thomas Jelly and John Palmer, these houses closely resemble John Wood the Younger's ones in Brock Street (qv) etc. SOURCES: RCHME Report and Survey on 41-43 St James's Parade in National Monuments Record, ref. 32460; Walter Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bath (2nd ed. 1980), 151-52.

Listing NGR: ST7498964541

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