1-8, Bath Street

Nos. 1-8 Bath Street (consecutive): Shops with accommodation over, built 1791-1794, with foundation stone laid in 1791. Designed by Thomas Baldwin for the Bath Corporation following the Bath Improvement Act of 1789. Post-World War II repairs and restoration undertaken, particularly to the upper floors of No. 7.

Materials and construction: Bath limestone ashlar with Welsh slate roofs.

Plan: Double-depth plan with the ground floor recessed behind a colonnade.

Exterior: Three storeys plus attics. The Stall Street elevation has six bays over seven columns, of which the four right-hand bays form No. 1 Bath Street. Shopfronts have deep fascias with running swag ornament and egg-and-dart cornices to the ground floor footway ceilings. First-floor windows to bays two and four have pedimented surrounds. No. 1 has two flat-topped dormers and a stone chimney stack.

The Bath Street elevation consists of twenty-one bays over an Ionic colonnade of twenty-two columns, with each house occupying three bays, though planning changes have occurred. The ground floor colonnade is paved with semi-uniform shopfronts, mostly dating to the 1980s except that of No. 7, which may be original. No. 1 has a late 20th-century double shopfront. No. 2 has a late 20th-century shopfront. Nos. 3 and 4 have reproduction shopfronts with a three-light window to the left (No. 3) and double panelled doors with late 20th-century cash dispensers to the right (No. 4). Nos. 5 and 6 have reproduction shopfronts with six-panel doors with circular fanlights over (that to No. 6 dating to 1991 by the David Brain Partnership). No. 7 has a shopfront continuing round the corner into Hot Bath Street, appearing partially original to circa 1791 and restored in 1987. No. 8 has a reproduction shopfront within the main facade with an additional bay.

Six-panel doors provide access to upper floors. Bilbery Lane is bridged in the centre of the row (between Nos. 4 and 5) by three bays carried through the house on six additional Ionic columns. The columns carry a continuous entablature on which the first-floor windows sit directly. The centre first-floor windows of each house are pedimented with friezes decorated with swags, paterae and tall consoles similar to those on wooden shopfronts. Double pilaster strips with consoles as capitals flank these windows. The first windows from the Stall Street end on both floors are blind. All windows are six-over-six sashes in plain reveals except those described above; many are reproduction with horns, though some appear original, particularly Nos. 5 and 6. A continuous Pompeian scroll forms a sill band for the second floor. A cornice, parapet, mansard roof, and flat-topped dormers (two to each house with six-over-six sashes) complete the upper storeys, though many dormers have been doubled in size. Tall ashlar chimney stacks, some with pots and some without, rise from the roof.

The design continues round the return of the buildings in Hot Bath Street (Nos. 7 and 8), with five bays over six columns. The first floor has outer and central windows with pedimented surrounds, and three dormers with the outer two being paired. No. 8 has an additional narrow bay that joins the main colonnade to Hot Bath. The ground floor of this additional bay contains a six-panel door with six-pane sidelights and a rectangular light over, all slightly bowed, appearing to be an early 19th-century shopfront, though very small. The first floor has an arch-headed six-over-six sash flanked by recesses carrying statues of Kings Osric and Edgar from the old Guildhall (built 1625, demolished 1777), with a small three-over-three sash above and a cornice and parapet above that; the roof is not visible. The south return has blind windows and a tall stone chimney behind. The rear elevation is also in ashlar and has some pantile roofing. Originally flat-fronted, the rear now has various extensions related to the introduction of sanitation.

Interiors: Not inspected, but have clearly undergone considerable alterations, with Nos. 3 and 4 rebuilt internally in 1963, and may bear little relationship to their original state.

Historical context: Bath Street was designed by Baldwin and built under the provisions of the 1789 Bath Improvement Act, with the first stone laid on 31 March 1791. The result, linking the Cross Bath and the King's Bath, exemplifies neoclassical town improvement showing the influence of the Adam brothers. The colonnades were intended to shelter pedestrians and reflected thoroughly up-to-date thinking influenced by French examples of planned shopping developments.

No. 8 is of particular interest. Built in 1797 to Palmer's designs (according to council minute books), it opened as the Bath Corporation's "House of Antiquities" in 1800 and later served as the house of the Master of the Baths. The statues of King Osric and King Edgar are late 15th-century works salvaged from the old Guildhall on its demolition in 1775. This museum has been described as "probably the earliest archaeological museum in Britain to be established by a municipal authority" and demonstrates Bath's early awareness of its own historical importance. Extensive alterations have taken place in recent years as part of the restoration of Bath Spa.