Details
NORTH ROAD
(South side)
Bath Spa Hotel
(Formerly Listed as:
NORTH ROAD
Spa Nurses Home)
05/08/75
II
Detached house in own grounds, originally called Vellore, now hotel. 1835 for Colonel, later general, Augustus Andrews, possibly by John Pinch the Younger. Block to right built 1835, similar block to left (north) and colonnade were added in 1878.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, slate roofs.
PLAN: Two blocks of rectangular plan connected by colonnade, with C20 additions.
EXTERIOR: Original block has two storeys and cornice, moulded lintel frieze and ground floor platband that continue across colonnade and left hand block. First floor has paired Tuscan pilasters to quoins, moulded eared architraves, panelled aprons and cornices on consoles to two/four-pane sash windows, those to sides have stone balconies on cast iron brackets, stone piers, pedimented to each facet, articulate railings with diagonal cross bars and anthemion motifs. Ground floor has wide banded pilasters to quoins and to projecting central range, Tuscan pilaster/mullions and entablatures to two/four-pane tripartite windows flanking an enclosed porch with paired fluted Doric columns and C20 glazing to rear. First floor balcony above porch similar but deeper than those to sides. Above parapet of central range panel between paired piers with carved crest to centre. First floor of left return has five windows with similar window surrounds to those at front and continuous balcony similar to those at front. Windows have lowered sills except that to inside right, which has panelled apron. Ground floor has banded rustication with French windows to centre and left. Right return attached to C20 block. Left hand 1878 block has dentil cornice to pediment over central range, half-glazed double doors with large overlight above stone cornice. Right return has tripartite windows and no balcony. Two storey eight-bay colonnade, now glazed in, has fluted Doric columns below windows with eared architraves, cornices and panelled aprons articulated by pilasters.
INTERIOR: Not inspected but noted as having dentil cornice with key-pattern frieze and Soanian dome-vaulted ceiling to entrance hall with roundels to segmental tympana.
HISTORY: General Andrews, for whom the house was built, had served in the Indian Army. On his retirement here, he embarked on the creation of an elaborate villa garden, with an outstanding collection of plants; the notable conservatory, since demolished, contained 2,000 specimens. The sale notice of 1858 drew attention to the `consumable taste and judgment¿ of the late owner, who spent over £1000 on a tufa grotto, as well as on a parterre, summerhouses, terraces, etc. As such it is a fine example of an Italianate villa within an unusually elaborate setting. The building was sold in 1858 for £4,950 and became the residence of Rev. C Kemble who was responsible for the restoration of Bath Abbey (qv) 1864-1874; it was extended in 1878 when it became Bath College, a school for boys. In the last decade of the C19 the colonnade, corridor above and chapel were built. The school closed in 1909 and in 1912 is became the Bath Hydropathic Company hotel. It was requisitioned by the War Department in 1939 and became the temporary residence of the Emperor Haille Selassie of Abyssinia whilst in exile. He and his entourage lived in the Master¿s House. It re-opened as a hotel in 1949 for just 18 months before being sold to South West Regional Hospital Board for £125,000 as a nurses home.
SOURCE: Stewart Harding & David Lambert, `Parks and Gardens of Avon¿ (1994), 75.
Listing NGR: ST7611665270
