2 Hetling Court and Abbey Church House (formerly Hetling House)

House, now offices. Built around 1570 for Edward Clarke, later owned by Sir Walter Hungerford. The building was partially destroyed by bombing in April 1942 and restored in 1953.

MATERIALS AND PLAN

The house is constructed of squared limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and has a concrete tile roof. It is a large many-gabled house of typical late 16th-century form, arranged to an L-plan, with its principal façade facing Westgate Buildings and a long secondary frontage to Hetling Court.

EXTERIOR

The building rises three storeys with a basement. The west front features three gables above leaded casements with stone hollow mould mullions and transoms, and flat pointed heads to lights. To the left is a wide canted bay, with a narrower second storey containing one-four-one lights under a stone hipped roof with a king mullion. The first floor has a large one-six-one-light window also with a king mullion and transom, with hipped roofing beyond the upper bay, above a smaller three-light with transom. To the right are two three-light windows with stopped drips, above a deep three-light and four-light with transom and king mullion. The ground floor has a smaller four-light with transom and king mullion. At the centre stand a pair of plank doors set back to a landing on three steps, within a moulded surround featuring a flat three-centred arch and spandrels. Moulded drip courses run the full width above the ground and first floors. The gables are coped with small finials. To the left of centre is a stack with three separate diagonal flues with cappings. The return to the right has a similar coped gable above plain walling, with one small three-light at second floor level with a stopped drip, and a moulded drip carried round above the first floor.

The long return to Hetling Court is divided into two parts with a continuous frontage. The first section has three high face gables with upper parts in ashlar, set above three-light stone mullioned casements with drips matching the main front. Beneath these are three tall two-light casements with twelve and six-pane configurations in flush stone surrounds with recessed hollow mould, including a central mullion and straight drip. Two of these windows are closely set as a pair. To the left is a smaller twelve-pane sash. The ground floor contains two late 19th-century square lights and a pair of inserted doors under a deep transom light with a stone mullion, with a basement grille to the far right. The second section has three face gables with copings on stepped kneelers. At the second floor are three large paired twelve-pane sashes in flush moulded surrounds with wood central sash boxes, above paired eight-pane sashes in raised plat surrounds with straight drips. Two plain sashes in plat surrounds follow, with a common drip but with a pier of masonry between them. The ground floor contains two small later extensions in ashlar: to the left a panelled door to a splay with a pair of glazed doors and a nine-pane display window; to the right, slightly higher and stepped back, are three large plain sashes and a door in a deep recess. Both sections are under a cornice with a blocking course, not continuous. Various stacks are positioned throughout this part, including one to the rear.

INTERIOR

The main staircase features balustrades typical of the transition from Tudor to Renaissance styles. The Great Room measures 47 feet long by 18 feet wide and approximately 15 feet high, with a raised dais at one end. Originally panelled to ceiling height in oak, this panelling has been re-used as a dado. A large bay window with leaded lights displays heraldic shields representing various coats of arms. The room contains a remarkable fireplace with a ceiling-high overmantle of similar character to that at South Wraxall Manor. The lower portion features Ionic pillars with well-detailed orders and has a replacement dog grate and fireback of reformed Portland stone. The overmantle, which is coarser in execution, may be of later date. Pilasters taper from top to bottom, flanking a heraldic shield of the Clarke family.

HISTORY

Though severely damaged by bombing, this is an important survival of its period in Bath. The site was recorded as being that of a leprosy hospital in 1136. The house was built for Bath MP Edward Clarke around 1550 and was later acquired by the physician Dr Robert Baker for housing wealthy patients seeking a cure. It subsequently became the residence of Sir Edward Hungerford in the 17th century, when it was known as Hungerford House. It then passed to Lord Lexington, who gave the property to Mrs Avill, a widow, in lieu of a £100 legacy. It appears in Gilmore's 1694 map as "Mrs Savill's Lodgings Nere the hott Bath". Alexander Pope stayed here, and in 1746 Princess Caroline, daughter of George II, visited. John Wood described it as "the second best House in the City". Pre-war photographs document the extent of rebuilding undertaken in 1953, including the entire façade onto Westgate Buildings, when all Georgian sash windows were replaced with 16th-century type lattice casements. This is virtually the only domestic survival from the 16th century in Bath and the only building still existing shown on Gilmore's map of 1694, aside from the Abbey. The building underwent major alterations in a campaign of the 1880s. The post-World War II restoration was overseen by Mowbray Green and by Carpenter & Beresford Smith. The building was listed on 11 August 1972.