Details
MILSOM STREET
(South West side)
Nos.2-22 (Consec)
12/06/50
GV II
Twenty-one terrace houses, now shops, stepped uphill from No.2 to left. Begun 1762 (elevation agreed 30.03.1761, Council minutes). Standard elevation probably by Thomas Jelly.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, double pitched slate mansard roofs with dormers and moulded stacks (mostly truncated) to coped party walls.
PLAN: Double depth plans with rear additions.
EXTERIOR: Three storeys with attics and basement, each house three-window front. Coped parapets and stopped modillion cornices, moulded eared architraves to second floor windows, moulded architraves with cornices to first floor windows, those to centre of each house have pediment. C19 and C20 shops. No.2 has six/six-pane sash windows and c1993 Georgian style shop. No.3 plate glass sash windows and a lead downpipe with bell head. Shop, 1911 by C. Bryan Oliver, has panelled pilasters and moulded consoles supporting cornice to tall fascia with huge moulded pedimented consoles to ends, ornamented tops to colonnettes of curved plate glass windows leading to set back central door. Nos 4 and 5 are one shop with plate glass sash windows to upper floors over one C20 shopfront with panelled pilasters and very deep fascia, two large plate glass windows and entrances at either end of front. Building had some alterations by W. J .Willcox in 1888 (RIBA Drawings Collection) and in 1890. No.4 has lead downpipe with bell-head to left. No.6 has painted reveals to plate glass sash windows to upper floors, projecting mid C20 shop window with curved corners, dentil cornice over tall fascia, curved plate glass windows and overlights, panelled plinths with scrolled grilles to centres, and set back C20 double doors. Nos 7-14 are now one shop (Jolly's) which began in No.12 in 1831 and spread across eight houses. Plate glass windows to upper floors and elaborate marble and polished granite columns and carved fascias to shopfront, most are partially late C19 but shopfront to No.14 has been reconstructed in 1995, when the shop underwent considerable refurbishment, inside and out. Nos 7 and 8 late C19 shop designed for R. King and Son, Draper. RIBA Drawings Collection has drawings for alterations by W. J. Willcox in 1907 and 1910. Windows were refitted in 1953 by Courtney Pope for Jolly's. Front has been altered again in 1995. Lead downpipe with bell-head to left of No.7. No.9 has 1907 shopfront by J. Foster for Jolly's. Lead downpipe with bell-head. No.10 has 1905 shopfront by J. Foster for Jolly's. No.11-13 has elaborate shopfront of 1879 by CE. Davis for Jolly's. Large central doorway with segmental pediment to No.12 where Jolly's began. Lead downpipe with bell-head to left of No.11. No.14 had shopfront of 1938 by J. Foster for Jolly's but has been reconstructed in more Victorian style in 1995. Shopfront covers four-bays of which left hand one part of No.13. A peacock mosaic c1908 is partially visible in the lobby floor. No.15 has a C20 shopfront. Downpipe with lead bell-head to left. Six/six-sash windows above. No.16 has plate glass sash windows to upper floors and mid/late C20 shop in Victorian style. One paired and one single dormer, all with six/six-sashes. Nos 17 and 18 are one shop with painted architraves to plate glass sash windows to upper floors, those to first floor with splayed reveals. Double shopfront has articulated by seven fluted Corinthian columns supporting an entablature with paterae, behind columns late C20 shopfront. Shopfront was first to one house (No 17) and was designed in 1911 by Silcock and Reay, possibly reusing columns from early C19 shopfront (see photograph from Bath Chronicle). Extended in matching style across No.18 in later C20. Downpipe with lead bell-head to left of No.17. No.19 has plate glass sash windows, painted architraves to second floor, painted splayed reveals to first floor, and shop of 1921 by A. Guparrell Ltd. No.20 has six/six-pane sash windows to attic and second floor and painted splayed reveals to plate glass sash windows to first floor. 1920's-1930's projecting shop has cornice to fascia and plate glass curved to outer and inner corners flanking set back door. Downpipe with lead bell-head to left. No.21 has six/six-pane sash windows to attic, horizontal glazing bars to two/two-pane sashes and balconettes to second floor, plate glass sashes to first floor and shopfront with 1911 surround and modern windows. No.22 has shopfront with surround of 1911 by C Bryan Oliver, and modern windows, plate glass sashes above. Downpipe with lead bell-head to right.
REAR ELEVATION: The rear of Jolly's, now including the staff entrance facing onto John Street, is of interest in its own right as an instance of a later Victorian emulation of a C17 building: this was the site of Barton House, a Cotswoldian manor house, hence the gabled range of four gables in masonry (by J. Elkington Gill, 1869, extended by Browne & Gill, 1885), echoing the pre-Wood age, while the half-timbered, jettied gable to the south, with its large five-light leaded window (by Major Davis, 1888), is a reminder of the wholly vanished wooden buildings of the city.
INTERIORS: Not inspected, except No. 4/5 in 1982. No. 4 had a ballroom on the first floor. Jolly's (Nos 7-14) which was reconstructed on ground and first floors in 1994-1995. No. 21 (1986) has a staircase with a fine balustrade of fluted Doric columns and Rococo ornamentation on the close strings. Very fine Rococo ceiling and ceiling rose.
HISTORY: No. 2 was Coward Linen Draper, c1835, then c1840-45 `PARTON & COMPY (LATE COWARDS) WAREHOUSE', both entrances having coats of arms. No. 3 was Messrs Walker & Ling, Costumers & Milliners c 1911. No. 6 was Steele & Marsh, Chemists c 1862-1921. No. 7, now Jolly's was originally R King & Son, Costumes, Mantles & Millinery c 1850-1954 when premises taken over by rivals Jolly & Co. who had moved from Margate to Bath (20 Old Bond Street) in 1830, and to No.12 Milsom Street in 1831, trading as `The Bath Emporium'. Jolly's now stretches from Nos 7-14 Milsom Street. No.15 was Milsom & Son, pianoforte and Music Sellers, built 1882, it moved to No.12 Northgate Street in 1928. No.17 was Eyres c1884 and No.18 W.B. Bartrum.
SOURCES: (Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bath: Bath: 1980-: 146; The Bath Chronicle: Images of Bath: Derby: 1994-: 71; Lees-Milne J and Ford D: Images of Bath: London: 1982-; Finch G: Shopfront Record, Bath City Council: 1992-).
Listing NGR: ST7491365051
