2-22, Milsom Street

A terrace of twenty-one houses, now predominantly shops, stepped uphill from No. 2 to the left. Construction began in 1762, following an elevation approved on 30 March 1761 by the Council. The standard elevation was probably designed by Thomas Jelly.

The buildings are constructed in limestone ashlar with double-pitched slate mansard roofs featuring dormers and moulded stacks (mostly truncated) to coped party walls. Each house has a three-storey elevation with attics and basement, and each front is three windows wide. The design includes coped parapets and stopped modillion cornices, moulded eared architraves to second-floor windows, and moulded architraves with cornices to first-floor windows, those at the centre of each house topped with pediments.

The street frontage has been extensively modified by 19th and 20th century shopfronts. No. 2 retains six-over-six-pane sash windows with a circa 1993 Georgian-style shop. No. 3 has plate glass sash windows and a lead downpipe with bell head. The shop at No. 3, dating from 1911 and designed by C. Bryan Oliver, features panelled pilasters and moulded consoles supporting a cornice to a tall fascia, with large moulded pedimented consoles to the ends and ornamented tops to colonnettes of curved plate glass windows leading to a set-back central door.

Nos. 4 and 5 now form a single shop with plate glass sash windows to upper floors above a 20th-century shopfront with panelled pilasters, very deep fascia, two large plate glass windows, and entrances at either end. The building underwent alterations by W. J. Willcox in 1888 and 1890 (documented in the RIBA Drawings Collection). No. 4 has a lead downpipe with bell head to the left.

No. 6 displays painted reveals to plate glass sash windows to upper floors, a projecting mid-20th-century shop window with curved corners, a dentil cornice over a tall fascia, curved plate glass windows with overlights, panelled plinths with scrolled grilles to the centres, and a set-back 20th-century double doors.

Nos. 7 to 14 now form a single shop (Jolly's), which began at No. 12 in 1831 and has expanded across eight houses. Plate glass windows light the upper floors, while the shopfront features elaborate marble and polished granite columns with carved fascias, mostly of late 19th-century date. The shopfront to No. 14 was reconstructed in 1995 when the shop underwent considerable refurbishment inside and out.

Nos. 7 and 8 had a late 19th-century shop designed for R. King and Son, Drapers. The RIBA Drawings Collection holds drawings for alterations by W. J. Willcox in 1907 and 1910. Windows were refitted in 1953 by Courtney Pope for Jolly's, and the front was altered again in 1995. A lead downpipe with bell head stands to the left of No. 7.

No. 9 has a 1907 shopfront by J. Foster for Jolly's, with a lead downpipe with bell head. No. 10 has a 1905 shopfront also by J. Foster for Jolly's. Nos. 11 to 13 share an elaborate shopfront of 1879 by C. E. Davis for Jolly's, with a large central doorway to No. 12 (where Jolly's began) topped by a segmental pediment. A lead downpipe with bell head stands to the left of No. 11. No. 14 originally had a shopfront of 1938 by J. Foster for Jolly's but was reconstructed in a more Victorian style in 1995. The shopfront covers four bays, with the left-hand one forming part of No. 13. A peacock mosaic, dating to circa 1908, is partially visible in the lobby floor.

No. 15 has a 20th-century shopfront with six-over-six-sash windows above and a lead downpipe with bell head to the left. No. 16 has plate glass sash windows to upper floors and a mid to late 20th-century shop in Victorian style, with one paired and one single dormer fitted with six-over-six-sashes.

Nos. 17 and 18 form a single shop with painted architraves to plate glass sash windows to upper floors; those to the first floor have splayed reveals. The double shopfront is articulated by seven fluted Corinthian columns supporting an entablature with paterae, behind which sits a late 20th-century shopfront. The original shopfront to No. 17 was designed in 1911 by Silcock and Reay, possibly reusing columns from an early 19th-century shopfront (as shown in a photograph from the Bath Chronicle). This was extended in matching style across No. 18 in the later 20th century. A lead downpipe with bell head stands to the left of No. 17.

No. 19 has plate glass sash windows with painted architraves to the second floor and painted splayed reveals to the first floor, with a shop of 1921 by A. Guparrell Ltd. No. 20 has six-over-six-pane sash windows to the attic and second floor with painted splayed reveals to plate glass sash windows to the first floor. A projecting shop dating from the 1920s–1930s features a cornice to the fascia and plate glass curved to outer and inner corners flanking a set-back door. A lead downpipe with bell head stands to the left.

No. 21 has six-over-six-pane sash windows to the attic, two-over-two-pane sashes with horizontal glazing bars and balconettes to the second floor, and plate glass sashes to the first floor. The shopfront has a surround of 1911 with modern windows. No. 22 has a shopfront surround of 1911 by C. Bryan Oliver with modern windows and plate glass sashes above, with a lead downpipe with bell head to the right.

The rear elevation, particularly that of Jolly's facing John Street, is noteworthy as an instance of late Victorian emulation of a 17th-century building. This was the site of Barton House, a Cotswoldian manor house. A gabled range of four gables in masonry by J. Elkington Gill (1869), extended by Browne & Gill (1885), echoes the pre-Wood era, whilst a half-timbered, jettied gable to the south with a large five-light leaded window by Major Davis (1888) recalls the wholly vanished wooden buildings of the city.

Interiors have not been fully inspected, except for No. 4–5 in 1982, which had a ballroom on the first floor. Jolly's (Nos. 7–14) was reconstructed on ground and first floors in 1994–1995. No. 21 (1986) contains a staircase with a fine balustrade of fluted Doric columns and Rococo ornamentation on the close strings, along with a very fine Rococo ceiling and ceiling rose.

No. 2 was occupied by Coward Linen Draper around 1835, then from circa 1840–45 by Parton & Company (Late Cowards) Warehouse, both entrances bearing coats of arms. No. 3 housed Messrs Walker & Ling, Costumers & Milliners circa 1911. No. 6 was the premises of Steele & Marsh, Chemists, from circa 1862 to 1921. No. 7, now Jolly's, was originally R. King & Son, trading in Costumes, Mantles & Millinery from circa 1850 until 1954 when rivals Jolly & Company took over the premises. Jolly & Company had moved from Margate to Bath at 20 Old Bond Street in 1830 and relocated to No. 12 Milsom Street in 1831, trading as "The Bath Emporium". Jolly's now occupies Nos. 7–14 Milsom Street. No. 15 housed Milsom & Son, pianoforte and music sellers, built in 1882; they relocated to No. 12 Northgate Street in 1928. No. 17 was occupied by Eyres circa 1884, and No. 18 by W. B. Bartrum.