Details
LAURA PLACE
Nos.10, 11 AND 12
(Formerly Listed
as: LAURA PLACE
Nos 1-3 (consec).
Nos 4-6 (consec).
Nos 7-12 (consec))
12/06/50
GV I
Three terraced houses. 1788-1790. By Thomas Baldwin, for Sir William Johnstone Pulteney.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar with Welsh slate roofs.
PLAN: Double depth plan, with stepped party walls between No.10, and No.15 Johnstone Street (qv), and between No.12, and No.8 Argyle Street (qv).
EXTERIOR: Three storeys, attics and basement. Each house is four-bays wide, whole architectural composition is thirteen-bays, most right hand one being within No.8 Argyle Street. Rusticated ground floor, topped by band course on which stand giant fluted Corinthian pilasters set in widely spaced pairs, enclosing two-storeys. Facade articulated one:three:one:three:one:three:one, with pilaster on either side of each single window. Plain doorways in bays one, eight and twelve, six-panel doors with rectangular lights over. Wrought-iron area railings. Central first floor window of each three is enriched by wreathed and pedimented head on double consoles. Sill band to both floors. Windows late C18 type six/six sashes, all restored, except basement of No.11. Cornice, parapet, mansard roof, higher ridge line to Nos 10 and 11, eleven dormers to whole, all flat topped, six/six sashes to Nos 10 and 12, one/one to No.11, two/two to No.8 Argyle Street. Dormers numbers one, four, five, six, nine and eleven are double ones. Stone stacks with pots. Rear elevation is rubble and shows considerable rebuilding. Six/six sashes to No.10. No.10 has additional attic-storey with roof lights. Plain plate glass sashes to Nos 11 and 12.
INTERIORS: Not inspected.
HISTORY: Laura Place is called after Henrietta Laura Pulteney, Sir William's daughter, who laid the foundation stone on 31st March 1788, and inherited the estate in 1792. `Laura Place was planned as an irregular octagon, to join four streets of different width and contain four terraces of houses (of which this is one), built out of parallel alignment but of equal length. Each elevation is similarly treated to form a balanced composition, continuing in line and detail the adjoining ranges of Great Pulteney Street', (Ison). Laura Place forms a key part of the outstanding Great Pulteney Street development. Its lozenge-shaped plan is an unusual one for the day and served to create an uncommonly generous urban space, forming the ideal prelude to Great Pulteney Street. The gradual modulations of the elevations show the influence of Robert Adam on town architecture.
SOURCES: (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 136; Colvin H: A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1840: London: 1978-: 85; Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bath: Bath: 1980-: 164).
Listing NGR: ST7529064979
