St Michael'S Church House

WALCOT STREET 656-1/15/1815 (East side) St Michael's Church House

(Formerly Listed as: WALCOT STREET (East side) No.88 and St Michael with St Paul Church House) 05/08/75

GV II

Church house on site that slopes away to rear, to left of No.88 Walcot Street (qv) and part of that building. 1904. By Wallace Gill. MATERIALS: Random sized limestone ashlar with wide joints, double Roman tile roof with bellcote to ridge. PLAN: Rectangular. EXTERIOR: Part of a composition with No.88. Gabled end with diagonally set stone finial and three louvred slits to apex, valley to right fronted by inverted semicircular dip and ornamental rainwater head to downpipe on party wall, right hand quoin has moulded kneeler. Two storey semicircular arched recess with moulded impost string that rises over arch and continues across No.88 to right, has within recess five narrow windows stepped up at centre over elaborate stone doorcase with canopy and statue of St Michael slaying dragon set within broken swan neck pediment. Pilasters with Composite capitals rise from plinth and support lintel with `ST MICHAELS CHURCH HOUSE¿ carved to each side of stepped keystone. Flanking recess are two-light windows storeys, five-window range. Leaded windows with coloured glass Art Nouveau motifs to top of each light, thick moulded plinth. Tapering bellcote has paired semi-elliptical louvred openings to each side and tall swept copper roof. Impost string to front continues to left return and descends in spectacular scroll to lower string over three mullioned and transomed two-light windows. INTERIOR: Converted to office use. Glazed brown brick facing up to dado height; plaster husk decoration to upper parts of walls; panelled reredos at east end; gallery at west end with turned wooden rails, ball finials to principal posts; open timber roof. HISTORY: Built to serve the nearby church of St Michael, this Hall was built at the same time as numerous changes were underway to the church, indicative of a dynamic period in the church's history. Dedication plaque in beaten copper records that this church house was the gift of Ellen Taunton Little, and that it was dedicated by the bishop on 2nd December 1904. The style of the facade, a free Gothic design drawing on local vernacular elements as well as fashionable modern motifs, is highly unusual for the Bath context. The carving is of high quality. SOURCES: Neil Jackson, 'Nineteenth Century Bath. Architects and Architecture' (1991), 240.

Listing NGR: ST 75084 65298