9-16, BATH STREET

A formal terrace of eight houses with shops, numbered 9-16 Bath Street, forming the northern half of a symmetrical street layout designed by Thomas Baldwin as part of the Bath Improvement Scheme of 1789. The first stone was laid on 31 March 1791. The terrace ends at concave crescents and is considered one of the finest pieces of formal planning in Bath, linking the Cross Bath and the King's Bath along an east-west axis.

The building is constructed in fine ashlar with steep mansard slate roofs. It comprises three storeys, an attic and basement. The principal frontage spans twenty-one bays. All windows are twelve-pane sashes with fine bars in plain reveals. Sills are marked by a guilloche band at the second floor. The ground floor features a double colonnade of unfluted Ionic columns rising from a stone flag pavement and carrying a plain frieze with cornice and blocking course. Above the colonnade entablature, shop windows at the first floor are standardised with small-pane display windows, pilasters to scroll heads, and doors with deep transom lights. Central bays to each group of three have closed pediments on friezes with swags on deep consoles to pilasters.

The roof features ten dormers with paired sashes, one triple, and one single (all replacements). The facades return at the ends as shallow concave crescents. The west end quadrant is identical in detail, comprising five bays with three pedimented windows and smaller display windows to the colonnade. The east end return to Stall Street is similar but contains four bays with three dormers; bay two at first floor has a pediment on paired pilasters with consoles and a 20th-century shop front to the colonnade.

Across the whole frontage runs a lintel with frieze, cornice, blocking course and parapet, with five ashlar stacks. A straight, narrow single-bay link connects to the adjoining building to the right.

The interiors have been substantially altered, especially the ground floor and basement areas. The entire western end of the block was reconstructed internally after demolition of the Royal Baths in 1989 to form numbers 9-16, known as The Colonnades. The basement, ground and first floor levels were reconstructed internally again in 1997. The replacement of all glazing bars has restored the original dignity of the ensemble. The design reflects neoclassical town improvement showing the influence of the Adams family, with the colonnades intended to shelter pedestrians and influenced by contemporary French planned shopping developments.