Details
CAVENDISH ROAD
(West side)
Doric House and attached wall
(Formerly Listed as:
SION HILL (South side) Doric House)
12/06/50
GV II*
House and picture gallery on a site that slopes down to rear. 1803. Gallery designed by Joseph Michael Gandy ARA (exhibited at the RA in 1803) for Charles Spackman, developer, for his friend and protege Thomas Barker (1769-1847).
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar with some red sandstone, slate roof with stack to rear.
PLAN: Tapering L-plan.
EXTERIOR: Two storeys and basement, four-window range. Main temple like body of building consists of substantial plinth that forms level platform for four detached columns with concave Doric capitals and large abaci between engaged antae that front windowless wall with platband and support deep entablature and mutule cornice. First floor (attic storey) articulated by similar but smaller arcade with three three/six-pane sash windows to central bays, entablature has simpler cornice, blocking course has hollow acroteria above columns shape of half of hull of boat. Entablatures returned to left, that to attic supports pediment with similar acroteria. Friezes and antae form recessed panels to first and ground floors, that to first floor has six/six-pane sash window with sun-blind box to centre between paired pilasters. Below, to ground floor is tripartite window with pilasters and cornice that opens onto a platform terrace formed by the plinth. To right is single storey forward wing, semicircular at south end, encircled by entablature and blocking course level with mutule cornice of main block. Bay at right angle to main block steps slightly forward with sun-blind box to French windows that open onto balustraded terrace, to right is pilaster. Southern curve sash window with sun-blind box in raised surround with cornice. Terrace small late C19 conservatory. Attached to plinth is ashlar garden wall that sweeps down to left of gate to north end and extends for approx 10m. To right of main temple block three storey entrance range with six-panel door glazed to top flanked by engaged Doric columns supporting entablature and cornice, above three/six-pane sash window similar to those of main block. Red sandstone second storey with Bath stone dressings and six/six-pane sash window, added in 1822.
INTERIOR: Not inspected. Bath Preservation Trust interiors survey records survival of numerous features. Entrance hall with flagged floor, cornice with palmette decoration, curving cantilevered stone stair with wrought iron railings and wooden hand rail, rails of distinctive primitivist classical design with knobs to base and scrolls to top; alcove half way up stair; staircase lit by oval lantern. Two other rooms to ground floor: the fresco room running parallel with Cavendish Road behind screen wall, and the dining room to south-west. Fresco room is a double cube, 32ft by 16ft by 16ft. Notable fresco depicting `The Massacre at Sciotes¿ by Barker along east wall; white marble chimneypiece with Egyptian terms and hieroglyph-enriched frieze; large nine/nine pane window with side lights to south; plaster ceiling cornice and rose. Dining room is pear-shaped, wider to south and tapering towards small kitchen to north; mid-C19 fireplace; French windows. Rooms to upper floors are plainer, retaining six-panel doors. Basement retains kitchen with dresser, four stores (including wine store with stone bins), former housekeeper's room under dining room with panelling and fireplace.
HISTORY: Built after his marriage by the successful Bath prodigy painter Thomas Barker, this is a remarkable (and unusual) Greek Revival town house. The gallery was designed as a show-case for Barker's own works and as an exhibition space for Old Master and other paintings. The fresco, 'The Massacre of the Sciotes', measures 30 ft by 12 ft and is executed in genuine fresco technique on wet plaster. It was unveiled in March 1826. It depicts the Turkish massacre of Chios of 1822, in which 25,000 were slain (Delacroix's celebrated painting of 1824 may have been the inspiration). It was a very early essay in the technique and is of great significance, both technically and in terms of subject matter, reflecting the mood of Philhellenism then abroad in the country¿s more progressive circles. The house was extended in 1822, possibly by H.E. Goodridge, friend of Thomas Barker. The former continuation to north was badly damaged by bombing and rebuilt c.1952 as a separate property now 1 Sion Hill.
SOURCES: Information from Dr Victor Thompson; Walter Ison, 'The Georgian Buildings of Bath' (Bath 1980), 191; N. Pevsner, 'The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol' (1958), 131; Edward Croft-Murray, 'Decorative Painting in England' 2 vols (1962-70) I, 275; II, 73-3, 167a, 311; Bath Preservation Trust, Interiors Survey (1988); 'The Barkers of Bath' (Victoria Art Gallery exhib. Cat. 1986), 15, 17-18, 43-44; Neil Jackson,'Nineteenth Century Bath - Architects and Architecture' (1991), 39.
Listing NGR: ST7432265978
