Pratt's Hotel

Details

SOUTH PARADE 656-1/41/1506

Nos.4-8 (Consec) Pratt's Hotel

(Formerly Listed as: SOUTH PARADE No.1. Nos 2 and 3 (Farrell's Hotel). Nos 4-8 (consec) (Pratt's Hotel)) 12/06/50

GV I

Houses, now hotel. c1743-49. By John Wood the Elder. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar with Welsh slate roof. PLAN: Double depth houses with rear extensions. EXTERIOR: Houses of three storeys with attics and basements, forming the centrepiece and eastern end of this palace fronted Palladian terrace of twenty-nine bays, arranged three:seven:three:three:three:seven:three. Each house is of three bays except No.5 in centre of five bays, which also has a pediment and parapet with ball finials, and projects forward. No.8 also projects forward, and has a return to Duke Street. All windows are late C19 plate glass sashes with splayed surrounds, some with dropped sills, (especially noticeable to the second floor of No.7); platband at first floor level; modillion cornice; parapet once crowned with stone balustrade (qv No.1), but only the solid sections remain in situ. Mansard roofs, heightened to No.7, with flat topped dormers, two to each house; ashlar stacks, all with pots removed; that to No. 7 removed altogether. Nos. 4 and 8 have doorways with pediments on consoles consistent with the rest of the development. The central door to the terrace, No. 5, has an Ionic doorcase with a full entablature (now supporting a cast iron balcony) carried on columns. No.6 has lost its doorcase altogether, and now sports an extra window. No.7 has a later Greek Revival doorcase with deep frieze and pediment carried on Doric pilasters. Wrought iron balconettes to first floor windows of No.5; a continuous wrought iron balcony runs across the first floors of No.7 and the adjoining bays of each of its neighbours. Wrought iron front area railings in place of original stone balustrade; basement windows as per houses, except No.4 which has two damaged six/six sashes and No.5 has two casements. No.8 has a four bay front elevation, with the outer three bays projecting forward as part of the end of terrace emphasis; the three bay return to Duke Street also projects forward as part of the balanced composition of the development; the left-hand pairs of windows to each floor are blind (there is none to the left-hand side of the ground floor), and the right-hand windows contain plate glass sash windows. The plat band is inscribed `DUKE STREET¿ in sunken capitals. INTERIORS: Inspected in part only. Partial survival of original joinery, plasterwork, plan form but ground floor much altered. HISTORY: No.5 is associated with the Duke of York, 1761; the Duke of Kingston (the ground landlord) who died there, and the Rev. William Bowles. No.6 is associated with Sir Walter Scott, who stayed there in 1777 as a child (bronze plaque). William Wilberforce stayed at No.7 in 1830. This terrace has had various alterations in its planning, particularly in the amalgamation of houses. Thus Nos. 6 and 7 were amalgamated into No.7, with No.6 losing its doorway, and chimney stack; and all five houses are now amalgamated as Pratt's Hotel. A key part of John Wood's scheme for the Abbey Orchard, 1740-1749, one of the most important urban developments of its day. Work commenced on the row in 1743, but plots were still being assigned in 1749. The original appearance of the row is recorded in a watercolour of 1775 by Thomas Malton in the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath, taken from the southern end of Duke Street and looking West, which records the front area balustrades, the urns of the Parapet corners, and the obelisk-like finial over the central Pediment. SOURCES: John Wood, 'A Description of Bath' (2nd ed. 1765, repr. 1969), 248 & 349-51; Walter Ison, `The Georgian Buildings of Bath¿ (2nd d. 1980), 137, 229; Mowl T and Earnshaw B: `John Wood Architect of Obsession¿ (1988), 135-147; James Lees-Milne and D. Ford, `Images of Bath¿ (1982), 608.

Listing NGR: ST7529064631

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