8-17, Argyle Street

Nos. 8-17 Argyle Street (consecutive properties)

Shops with accommodation over, now in mixed use including public houses. Built circa 1789, designed by Thomas Baldwin, with alterations from circa 1828 and the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The buildings are constructed in Bath limestone ashlar with Welsh slate roofs and some pantiles on the rear slopes. They form a balanced terrace stretching between Pulteney Bridge and Laura Place, comprising three storeys with attics and a basement storey. The entire terrace consists of thirty bays, with each individual house occupying three bays in the proportion of three, nine, six, nine, three.

The outer ends of the block project forward and feature entablature with crowning pediments. At the first floor, the central section has a semicircular headed window with decorated entablature; the window to No. 8 is blind. The central portion of the terrace projects slightly and displays a Pompeian frieze at second floor level. Windows are set in plain reveals. Most feature six-over-six sashes, except Nos. 13-15 and the first floor of No. 11, which have late 19th-century plain sashes. A continuous sill runs across the second floor.

The buildings display a remarkable range of shopfronts. No. 8 is particularly outstanding, featuring four fluted Ionic columns with panelled doors flanking four-over-three windows, an entablature and dentil cornice, and the Royal Arms of Queen Charlotte executed in Coade Stone above. This shopfront, dating from circa 1828, shortly after the house was built, is considered one of the finest late Georgian shopfronts in the country. No. 9 (The Boater public house) has an early 19th-century bowed front with a central door (now a window) flanked by eight-pane windows, each section topped by a fanlight. An original doorway to the right retains a six-panel door with radiating fanlight above. Nos. 10 and 11 have projecting 20th-century character shopfronts with house doors to the right (No. 11 may be earlier). No. 12 features a good late 19th-century projecting double-fronted shop with nine-pane windows, a fascia on double consoles, and a house doorway to the right. No. 13 has a 20th-century modern double-fronted shop. Nos. 14 and 15 have late 19th-century surrounds with late 20th-century character windows and original house doors to the right with plain fanlights. No. 16 has a late 18th-century bowed front matching No. 8, but retains a central entrance with a pediment above, plate glass windows, and an original six-panel house door to the right with radiating fanlight. This was formerly the premises of the Argyle Dairy Co., established in 1790. No. 17 features long and short rusticated quoins to the ground floor, a central doorway with arched head, a restored six-over-six sash to the right, and a plate glass window inserted to the left.

Mansard roofs with paired flat-topped dormers crown each house, most equipped with six-over-six sashes. Ashlar stacks with pots are present except to No. 14. No. 8 has a return elevation of one bay with flanking giant Corinthian pilasters fronting onto Laura Place.

The rear elevations are constructed in rubble and reveal the basement storeys with many later additions of varying sizes to the ground and first floors. This elevation is visually important as it is readily visible from across the river on Grand Parade. The first floor features tripartite windows with stepped heads; the second floor has plain heads. The rear elevation of No. 17 is particularly important and has been restored to something like its original appearance as shown in Thomas Hearne's watercolour 'Bath from Spring Gardens' of 1790. A semicircular vault for a warehouse occupies the river level, with triple windows on each floor above. The ground floor features Venetian-type windows; the second floor has additional light to the right, all with restored glazing bars. A triple dormer and an additional one to the left complete the composition. Spring Gardens Road, possibly once a mill leat, passes under No. 13.

Interior details were largely not inspected. No. 9 (The Boater pub) is much altered at ground floor level, though the staircase remains in situ but boxed in from ground to first floor. The first floor rear room contains a much-painted plaster frieze and cornice, door cases, doors, and a chimneypiece. The cellar contains large vaults. A photograph of the early 20th century by Mowbray Green in the National Monuments Record shows the ground floor interior of No. 16 containing a Neo-classical chimneypiece with Adamesque decoration of lyres, urns, garlands, and husks with a cast iron grate. No. 17 retains a wooden staircase with columnar newel posts and plain rails. The first floor retains a plaster frieze with sphinx and anthemion motif, though the interior was otherwise altered in 2001-2.

Argyle Street, originally known as Argyle Buildings, was the extension of the line of Adam's Pulteney Bridge into Sir William Pulteney's Bathwick estate. The estate passed to his daughter Henrietta Laura in 1792, though building work had already begun on Laura Place in 1788. This terrace, together with its northern opposite number, forms a monumental extension northwards from Robert Adam's Pulteney Bridge. It commands an imposing position adjoining Great Pulteney Bridge and overlooking the weir, while retaining a number of fine Georgian shopfronts to the street. The contrast between street and river levels is dramatic, resulting in very substantial basements. No. 9 was already the Argyle Tap of the Bath Brewery Co. by 1809. No. 12 served as J Savage's circulating library in the 19th century.