Partis College

Details

NEWBRIDGE HILL Partis College (Formerly Listed as: NEWBRIDGE HILL Partis College including lodge and wrought iron gates) 12/06/50 I

Almshouses and chapel in the Greek Revival style. 1825-1827, chapel altered and improved in 1863, The Extension added in mid C20. By Samuel and Philip Flood Page, Gothic chapel alterations by George Gilbert Scott. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, roofs not visible from ground. PLAN: Large quadrangular plan, open to south. Main range east/west, with north/south ranges at each end of approximately half size of main range. West range connected to main range by C20 range, The Extension. East range stands free of main range but connected via additional range at right angles through to The Lodge (qv). EXTERIOR: Two storeys throughout, but chapel has attic in Greek sense, which gives this section higher roofline than rest of buildings. Main range: thirty-two-bays, three:ten:six:ten:three. End pavilions set forward and articulated by giant Doric pilasters, paired at corners. Centrepiece six-bay unfluted Ionic portico fronting chapel, which has large architraved doorway, pediment with central roundel and blind attic with corner pilasters and returned cornice above. Wings each have five apartments, panelled doors with rectangular lights over, ground floor windows are six/six-sashes, upper floor ones three/six, as in pavilion wings. Listel, cornice, parapet, roofs not visible except for individual stacks for each apartment. Pavilions have taller parapet with centre corniced block. Returned in similar manner but with two windows and only single pilasters at corners. Rear elevation severely plain in rough stonework. East and west ranges have sixteen-bays, three:ten:three, and detailed as one wing of main range with pavilion added at other end. South elevation of pavilions returned again with paired pilasters at corners and single ones between windows. West range joined to main range by The Extension, mid C20 range canted across angle. Similar details but with six/six-sashes on upper floor. East range has additional section treated as five-bay front of pavilion, again with paired pilasters at corners and single ones between windows. Joins through to The Lodge (qv) with additional small single storey section with Venetian window and paired corner pilasters as before. Rear elevations are severely plain in rough stonework. INTERIORS: Not inspected. HISTORY: Partis College was founded by Anne Partis (qv Partis Memorial, Abbey Cemetery), widow of Fletcher Partis, in fulfilment of the instructions in his will. It was intended for thirty gentlewomen 'reduced by widowhood or orphanage from affluence to privation and distress'. They had to be over forty, Anglican, the daughters or widows of clergymen, professional men or others of similar rank: the foundation thus sheds interesting light on patterns of genteel respectability and philanthropy at the close of the late Georgian period. Partis College is an exceptionally handsome ensemble to a collegiate plan. Reminiscent of the severe phase of the Greek Revival (cf Wilkins¿s Downing College and Haileybury School), it is Bath¿s finest example of the Greek Revival style. The small but sumptuous chapel is among Bath¿s finest High Victorian creations. SOURCES: See RCHME Report in NMR, ref. 82854 Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bath: Bath: 1980-: 78; Jackson N: Nineteenth Century Bath - Architects and Architecture: Bath: 1991-: 48-51.

Listing NGR: ST7236565732

Legacy

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Legacy System number:

511708

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LBS

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