4-7, George Street

Four terrace houses on the south side of George Street, dating to around 1800, with mid to late 19th-century shops and 20th-century alterations.

The buildings are constructed in painted limestone ashlar with continuous single-pitched slate roofs, hipped to the left, and rubblestone bases supporting large double-moulded stacks positioned to the inner party walls. All four houses follow a single-depth plan and rise three storeys with cellars beneath. Each house has a two-window range on its main elevation.

The street facades are unified by a continuous low coped parapet and cornice band, with horned plate glass sash windows throughout. The ground floors have been substantially modified by the insertion of mid to late 19th-century shops, with individual variations in their design.

No. 4 (left) features splayed reveals to the first floor windows. Its projecting canted mid-19th-century shop displays a dentil cornice and moulded architrave to the fascia, with a set-back 20th-century door flanked by curved plate glass panes with leaded overlights and moulded octagonal columns to the outer angles.

No. 5 has splayed jambs to the second floor and splayed reveals to the first floor. Its projecting mid-19th-century shop features an elaborate modillion cornice with pendants to the sides, colonnettes to the plate glass panes with rounded upper corners, and curved panes flanking a set-back glazed shop door. A half-glazed five-panel door stands to the right.

No. 6 has splayed reveals to the upper windows. Its shop dates to 1908 and was designed by C.J. Calvert, submitted by Spackman and Son, surveyors. It displays fluted pilasters panelled to their bases with segmental pediments to consoles above, flanking the fascia and cornice. Moulded stone plinths and pierced cast iron bands top the plate glass sash windows, which curve inward toward a left-of-centre half-glazed door.

No. 7 is similar to No. 6, with a glazed door and blocked overlight to the right, and a painted stone plinth to its very altered late 19th-century shop.

The interiors of Nos. 6 and 7 were recorded by the Bath Preservation Trust in 1993. No. 6 contains stone flag steps to the coal cellar, with a drop from the road and variable shut. It has a wine cellar, larder, and scullery with an earthenware sink. A lead-lined conduit runs from the front top bedroom through the roof to the rear, with three inspection lids. A Coalbrookdale iron grate of around 1780 was installed circa 2000. No. 7 retains many original features despite conversion of its basement kitchen to a workshop. Notable interior elements include a front room cornice with a trellis of three diamonds between, a stone cantilevered staircase, original brass door furniture on some doors, green floral wallpaper (possibly stencilled) inside a ground floor rear room cupboard, and an original fitted pine dresser in the kitchen.

These houses linked the earlier 1730s part of George Street to the west with the 1760s houses developed by Daniel Milsom to the east, completing the southern side of the street. They appear on the Town Map of 1801. No. 5 was once "The Pestle and Mortar Chemists, Herbalists" and bore a three-dimensional trade symbol of a pestle and mortar on its roof. A 1908 drawing shows No. 6 had a fascia reading "VAUGHAN, Fruiterer, Florist" at that date.