16, Rivers Street

No. 16, Rivers Street is an end-of-terrace house, later converted into a shop at the corner of Rivers Street and Gloucester Street. It was likely built around 1770, based on a lease dated March 5, 1768, and has undergone alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The house is constructed of limestone ashlar, painted at ground floor level, with a slate mansard roof that is hipped and canted to the left. Moulded stacks are visible along the left party wall. The building follows a double-depth plan with a canted corner.

The exterior is three storeys with an attic and basement, presenting a two-window facade to Rivers Street. It features a coped parapet, a cornice, and a ground-floor platband that returns to the left. The left corner has a modillion cornice and six/six-pane sash windows with moulded architraves to the upper floors. Cornices and bracketed sills are present on the first floor, while the second floor has blind windows to the right. Evidence of a former door sill is visible on the blank wall to the right. The upper windows on the left return, facing Gloucester Street, are blind to the right. The ground floor features a flush six-panel door with a three-pane overlight, a two/two-pane sash above, a four/four-pane sash to the first floor left, and a plate glass sash to the ground floor. An early/mid-19th century shop fronts the canted corner and the left return. This shop has a cornice to its fascia, plate glass windows with moulded glazing bars and overlights, and a 20th-century half-glazed door. Faint advertising paint above the shop on the left return indicates a former grocer's shop.

The interior has not been inspected.

Rivers Street was developed by John Wood the Younger on several land parcels. Nos. 16-28 and 36-47 Rivers Street were built on land conveyed from the Rivers Estate to Wood for a 99-year lease. Numerous different Bath builders were responsible for implementing Wood’s overall design.

Document sources include building leases and rate books, and Walter Ison’s “The Georgian Buildings of Bath.”