Details
WIDCOMBE TERRACE
656-1/42/1915
Nos.1-6 (Consec)
(Formerly Listed as:
CHURCH STREET, Widcombe (West side)
Nos.1-6 (consec) Widcombe Terrace)
12/06/50
GV II*
Six terrace houses. c1805, almost certainly by Charles Harcourt Masters (Ison).
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, slate roofs.
PLAN: Straight terrace of double depth houses with mansard roofs, and with entry on north-east side from Church Street, but also to raised terrace (qv) to south-west. End units very slightly stepped forward, and at north end are paired full height bows.
EXTERIOR: Three storeys, attic and basement. Each has paired sash dormer window, windows generally twelve pane sash with tripartite units to ground and first floor. Top floor has paired sashes, and Nos.2-6 have further single sash to right in each case, these all to sill band. First floor tripartite sashes have cast iron balconettes, except No.3 which has tent hood on lattice standards, with decorative balustrade, and carried on four iron brackets, and without glazing bars, to right in Nos.2-6 single sash with sunk panel apron. Ground floor has paired sashes to Nos.1 and 6, and tripartite to remainder, with arched doorway to deep reveals, right, with original panelled doors, and decorative fanlights, but plain to Nos.2,3, and 6. Basement has sash, in area contained by spear-head railings, returned to doorways, and on ashlar curbs to rounded profile. Each has landing in stone flags carried on quadrant vault. Front richly articulated, with rusticated ground floor under deep plain band, recessed at tripartite sashes, and with sunk arch above first floor, at this level frieze band, also stepped back at windows. Moulded cornice with blocking course and parapet inflected to end houses, and all this detail returns to left (north-west) end, facing Widcombe Crescent (qv). Paired twelve pane above four:twelve:four pane tripartite sashes, with guilloche band at first floor and plain band to ground floor, with twelve pane to basement level, coping carries three stone urns, and paired mansard hips are divided by deep ashlar stack. Coped party divisions and five deep ashlar stacks. Rear has various dormers, paired sash to No.1, two light small-pane casement to No.2, replacement sash to No.3, two single sashes to No.4 and single sash each to Nos.5 and 6. Below these each has sash windows in plain reveals, with mid storey sashes to staircases. Variously twelve pane, sixteen pane or plain, and No.1 has blind windows to right. Main range has moulded cornice with blocking course and parapet, and Nos.4,5, and 6 have timber fillet inset to wall immediately below the cornice. Various extensions to outer doors, linked by ashlar boundary walls, with square opening and iron gate to No.3, and small areas with basement windows. South-east end has high parapet to flat centre covering double hipped roof, one small light and one blind light in plain walling below.
INTERIORS: Not inspected. Staircase to No.3 rebuilt in 1983. No.4 was sub-divided in 1959.
A very grand terrace, built as an ensemble with the adjacent Widcombe Crescent (`one of the most attractive minor ensembles in Bath': Ison), and having open views across the valley to Lyncombe Hill. The finely articulated rear elevations show the influence of Robert Adam, and the relationship between the double bowed north-west end and the neighbouring crescent displays a highly-developed sense of picturesque composition. The unusual arrangement of having the principal elevations facing outwards towards the fine south-westerly views required that the rear of the houses (always plain, and now considerably altered) faced onto the street; the gardens behind are reached via bridges running across the rear areas to a broad paved terrace. In all of this, the terrain was exploited to the full.
SOURCES: Walter Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bath (2nd ed 1980), 181-3, 176-178; Bath Archaeological Trust/RCHM England, Georgian Bath Historical Map (1989).
Listing NGR: ST7579364028
