Details
ST JAMES'S SQUARE
656-1/29/1548 (West side)
Nos.1-15 (Consec)
and attached railings
(Formerly Listed as
ST JAMES'S SQUARE
1-45 Consec))
12/06/50
GV I
Fifteen houses. Completed between 1790 and 1792. John Palmer, architect.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar to front, rubble to basements, ashlar, rubble and render to rear, Welsh slate and artificial slate double pile parapeted mansard roofs with coped party walls and ashlar stacks, some with clay pots.
EXTERIOR: A symmetrical, palace-fronted terrace forming the west side of St James's Square, on a sloping site falling to the south. The centre house (No.8) is pedimented and projects forward; so too do the endmost houses (Nos.1 and 15), which are treated as pavilions. Rest of the terrace is uniform. All houses are of three storeys with attics over basements, and of three bays. The row corresponds with Nos 23-37 St James's Square opposite (qv). No.8: house in centre of terrace. First floor has three plate glass horned sashes in plain reveals with wrought iron balconettes in surround of applied composite order springing from moulded sill band on four fluted console brackets and supporting frieze and moulded cornice with triangular pediment over centre window. Second floor has plate glass horned sashes in plain reveals with stone sills with wrought iron balconettes, ground floor has two similar windows to left, to right six-panel door with reeded and fielded panels with decorative overlight in plain reveal, pennant paved crossover with cast iron footscraper flush with pavement. Basement has two six/six sashes in splayed reveals with continuous stone sill, nine-pane glazed door and C20 window in ashlar infilling under crossover, C20 area steps. Two single dormers with two/two sashes. V-jointed rustication to ground floor forming voussoirs over openings with keystones supporting band course over ground floor, frieze, moulded eaves cornice with triangular pediment and coped parapet over. Nos. 1 and 15: houses at end of terrace. Similar elevations to No.8 but lacking crowning pediment. No.1 has splayed reveals and lowered sills with simple balconettes, sill band removed, six/six sashes to first and second floors, three-pane overlight to door. No.15 has six/six sashes to first floor, to left and centre with horns without balconettes, original sills, first and second floors have six/six sashes, to ground floor with horns, overlight to door filled in, staircase to front. Both Nos.1 and 15 have bold incised lettering `ST JAMES'S-SQUARE¿ (cut by Peter McLennan c.1988). Nos. 2-7 and 9-14: intermediate houses in the terrace. Uniform three bay fronts largely with plate glass sashes in plain or splayed reveals with stone sills single, double or triple dormers, six-panel doors in moulded architraves with flat shouldered surrounds with console brackets supporting moulded cornices, band courses over ground floor, sill bands to first floor, friezes, moulded eaves cornices and coped parapets. Nos 5, 13 and 14 have wrought iron balconettes to first floor windows, 13 to ground floor windows. Stone areas steps with wrought iron handrail to Nos 1, 4, 9 10, 11, 12 and 13, variously infilled below crossovers. Lead downpipes to Nos 2, 5, 9 and 14. Lead hopperhead to No.13. Wrought-iron lampholders over doors to Nos 8 and 11. No.4 has louvred timber sliding shutters to first, second and third floors with timber sills and fretwork "pelmets". Rear elevations have full height bows to Nos 12 and 14, each with continuous wrought iron balcony to first floor. No.6 has full height canted bay with cast iron balcony to first floor, Nos 5 and 15 largely retain early glazing bar sashes. Nos 1, 4, 6, 9, 10 and 11 have mansards built up to full third floor, all except No.15 have ashlar, rubble or rendered extensions. Lead hopperheads to rear of Nos 3, 4, 8, 10, 12 and 14.
INTERIORS: Not inspected. Past site visits report the following features, inter alia: No.2: stairs with Doric colonnette rails, three per tread, with moulded tread ends; double doors dividing first floor rooms. Considerable original joinery. Sub-divided into five flats 1987. No.3: chimney-pieces with reeded surrounds of marble. No.4: sub-divided into flats 1971. No.6: anthemion frieze and Victorian grey marble chimneypiece to ground floor front room; white marble chimney-piece with anthemion consoles to first floor; misc. Victorian alterations. Chimney-pieces stolen 1984. United with No.5 and sub-divided into eight flats in 1971. No.7: basement and ground floor turned into separate flat 1985. No.8: cantilevered stone stair with wrought iron rails enriched with lyre ornament No.9: basement, second and third floors turned into separate flats 1996. No.13: sub-divided in two in 1982.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Attached wrought and cast iron railings and gates, to Nos 1, 8 and 15 cast railings of baluster form with shaped heads, intermediate houses have wrought iron railings with urn heads, shaped heads to No.14, No.3 has lifting section, on limestone bases, some painted.
HISTORY: Developed on land leased by Messrs. Fielder, King, Hewlett and Broom[e] from Sir Peter Rivers Gay, Lord of the Manor of Walcot, on 25 March 1790. The successor to Wood's Queen Square, St James's Square shows a development in town planning theory in that the diagonally set approach roads (St James's Street from south-east, Marlborough Street from south-west, Great Bedford Street from north-east and Park Street from north-west) form part of the overall conception, thus creating a more picturesque urban effect. Compare the contemporary Laura Place and Sydney Place [qqv] for other examples of this tendency. The building lots were sub-let out to the following undertakers: Underlease of No.1 granted to Charles Viner 30 May 1791 for 96 years from 25 March 1791; underlease of No.2 granted to John Anstey and Henry Bosanquet 24 June 1792 for 94 years from 24 June 1792; underlease of No.3 granted to John Copner 24 June 1792 for 94 years from 24 June 1792; underlease of No.4 granted to William Hewlett 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790, underlease of No.5 granted to Charles Davis 3 November 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; underlease of No.6 granted to James Broome 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; underlease of No.7 granted to Henry Street 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; underlease of No.8 granted to Samuel Ward 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1791; underlease of No.9 granted to William Hewlett 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; underlease of No.10 granted to William Hewlett the Younger 5 October 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; underlease of No.11 granted to Charles Viner 24 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; underlease of No.12 granted to John Chapman 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; underlease of No.13 granted to Giles Fisher 30 November 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; underlease of No.14 granted to Charles Wheeler 30 November 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; underlease of No.15 granted to Thomas Beale and James Beale 23 October 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790.
SOURCES: Mowbray Green, 'The Eighteenth Century Architecture of Bath' (1904); Walter Ison, 'The Georgian Buildings of Bath' (2nd ed. 1980), 173-6; Bath City Archives, 'Abstract of title of Sir J F Rivers ... to property sold 1856': DEED PKT 2379 & MAPS.
Listing NGR: ST7443365627
