Details
NORFOLK CRESCENT
(East side)
Nos.8-18 (Consec)
Stirling House (No.12),
Moody House (No.13)
(Formerly Listed as:
NORFOLK CRESCENT
Nos 1-7 (consec)
(Flats Nos 1-27 Cumberland House)
& Nos 8-18 (consec))
12/06/50
GV II*
Eleven houses, part of symmetrical crescent of 18 (qv Nos 1-7 Norfolk Crescent). c1800-1820. Possibly by John Palmer, completed by John Pinch after 1810 when only Nos 1-9 were complete (see below).
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, slate roofs, No.16 has double Roman tile.
EXTERIOR: Large double depth plans, each house in three-bays, and with four storeys and basement, developed to full five storeys to rear resulting from fall in site. Original fenestration, all sashes, was six-pane in attic storey, above twelve-pane, and floor depth eighteen-pane to stone slab balconies with good iron railings at first floor. Ground floor had twelve-pane, with twelve-pane to basements. Layout remains now only to Nos 14,15 and 18, with blind centre light to attic in 14 and 18. Nos 9,10, and 11 have all plain sash. No.12 has eight-pane and blind centre light above twelve-pane, but with deep two-light casements with transom at first and ground floors. No.13 similar, but with six-pane to attic floor. No.16 has six-pane and blind above all plain. No.17 has steel casements in original openings. To left in Nos 9-14, and right in Nos 16 and 17, panelled doors, with deep transom light with decorative bar infill. No.18 has extra bay, set back to right, with pair of panelled doors and fanlight in deep reveals to arched opening. Three end bays are divided by four giant Ionic pilasters, brought forward slightly as stopped end (repeated at left hand end), and Nos 8 and 9 are in central pedimented five-bay section with six giant Ionic pilasters and two-bay flanking wings in two slight steps forward. Ground floor rusticated, with rusticated voussoirs to doors and windows, sill band to second floor, threaded to pilasters, and lintel with full entablature runs across whole crescent, with enclosed pediment to centre, and cornice with blocking course and parapet to attic storey. Party divisions are coped, with two-stage ashlar stacks, roof hipped at far end. Right return drops to path by river, in three lofty floors to extended bay, with various sashes. Rear generally in ashlar, with continuous cornice, blocking course and parapet, with varied sashes, and some later three or four storey small extensions. No.18 has four storey canted bay with sashes.
INTERIORS: Not inspected. Much altered in the course of conversion to flats, but some features such as ceiling plasterwork is known to survive at least in part.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Across front of all basement areas are good spearhead railings on ashlar curb to rounded top returned to doorways. No.14 retains original iron overthrow, matching that to No.7.
HISTORY: Norfolk Crescent was part of an ambitious proposal, on land leased in 1792 to an attorney named Richard Bowsher, operating with two builders named James Broom and John King. Leases on individual houses within the development were then granted to tradesmen, but the squeeze on credit following the outbreak of the wars with France in 1793 led to considerable delays in the completion of the crescent, with only the first 9 houses (these to the north of this group) being completed by 1810, when a subscription was opened to fund the completion of this part of the crescent, in an identical style to the earlier part. The involvement of John Pinch in the design of the crescent has been suggested: Bowsher, the main promoter of the scheme, was responsible for the bankrupt Pinch¿s affairs in the 1790s. Along with the slightly later Nelson Place [q.v.], the crescent constitutes a notable edge-of-town development, which combined a major urban-scaled project with an unspoiled rural prospect in the manner of the Royal Crescent. Seven houses in the crescent were severely damaged during the air raids of 1942. The restoration of the crescent earned a Civic Trust award in 1963: see plaque on north return of No.1. The houses have been sub-divided into council-owned flats.
SOURCES: Walter Ison, `The Georgian Buildings of Bath¿ (2nd ed. 1980), 180-81; Thom Gorst, `Bath. An Architectural Guide¿ (1997), 116. HISTORY: The Crescent is on land leased in 1792, but work was interrupted by the Napoleonic Wars; the first 9 houses onlywere completed by 1810. The whole forms a very grand conception, set to a radius of 420 feet (Ison), but the first7 houses were severely war damaged, and had to be almostentirely rebuilt. A total reinstatement of the frontage wouldbe possible, as all the original window openings remainunchanged.(Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bath: London: 1948-: 175;Bath Archaeological Trust/RCHM England: Georgian Bath Historical Map: Southampton: 1989-).
Listing NGR: ST7436364878
