8, Cleveland Place East

CLEVELAND PLACE EAST (East side)

No.8 12/06/50

GV II

Formerly known as: Dispensary CLEVELAND PLACE. Dispensary, now flats. Dated 1845, repaired and cleaned 1995. Probably by HE Goodridge. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, rubblestone gabled right return, slate roof with stacks to left. PLAN: Double depth plan to centre, single depth to right range. EXTERIOR: Three storeys and basement, symmetrical five-window range. Parapet, cornice and stepped frieze, banded rustication to ground floor. Pedimented central three ranges step forward with DISPENSARY' carved into frieze, two giant order Ionic columns in antis flanking moulded panel with guttae andMDCCCXLV' over moulded architrave and segmental pediment on consoles to full height six/nine-pane sash window. Similar flanking first floor windows have cornices below three/three-pane sash second floor windows with bracketed sills. Outer ranges each have moulded architrave and cornice on brackets over six/nine-pane sash window to first floor. Ground floor platband is also first floor sill band and steps forward at centre with cornice on consoles to deeply set back door flanked by six/six-pane sash windows. To far right six-panel door. INTERIOR: Not inspected. It originally had a central, top-lit dispensing room, with consulting rooms to the rear and patients¿ waiting rooms on either side: on the left was a physician¿s, on the right, a surgeon¿s room. The circulation routes were carefully planned. HISTORY: This dispensary, not originally part of Goodridge's proposals for the northern approaches to the Bathwick Estate, nevertheless forms its most monumental episode. It was opened for the benefit of the 'sick poor from any parish in or near Bath' (see plaque). A characteristic early Victorian philanthropic foundation, designed in Goodridge¿s more restrained classical manner. `In few ways can the affluent better aid their less fortunate brethren than by founding and affording support to DISPENSARIES¿, remarked The Builder. SOURCES: [The Builder, 7 April 1843, 160; Thom Gorst, 'Bath: an architectural guide' (1997), 210].

Listing NGR: ST7531265712