8 Rivers Street and attached railings

This is a three-storey, attic and basement terrace house, built between 1770 and 1775 and later altered in the 20th century. It was designed by John Wood the Younger and is located on Rivers Street in Bath.

The house is constructed of limestone ashlar to both the front and rear, with a mansard roof featuring Welsh slate to the front slope and double Roman tiles to the rear slope. There are two ashlar chimney stacks to the front, fitted with early clay pots. The front elevation has a three-window arrangement. The first floor features three nine/nine sash windows with splayed reveals, lowered stone sills, and wrought iron balconettes, each set within a timber blind box. The second floor has three six/six sash windows with plain reveals and stone sills, also with timber blind boxes. At ground floor level, there are two nine/nine sash windows to the right, also with splayed reveals, sills, and blind boxes, followed by a six-panel door with reeded, fielded, and glazed panels, a cast iron lion’s mask knocker, and a glazed light to the basement beneath the doorstep. The door is set within a pedimented Doric doorcase, one step leading to a pennant-paved crossover with a wrought iron footscraper. Basement windows consist of two six/six sashes and a 20th-century glazed door with overlight and small window. The roof has one double and one single dormer with 20th-century metal casements. A band course runs over the ground floor and a modillion cornice is topped by a coped parapet that continues with the adjacent building at No.9 Rivers Street. The rear elevation features a full-height canted bay with an eight/eight sash window on the first floor and two six/six sashes on the second floor. An ashlar extension is present off the staircase up to the second half-landing. The interior was not inspected at the time of listing.

Attached to the property are wrought iron railings and a gate with shaped heads on painted limestone bases.

Rivers Street was developed by John Wood the Younger on several parcels of land leased from various owners, including Sir Benet Garrard, Sir Peter Rivers Gay, and Thomas and Daniel Omer. It is noted that various Bath builders were involved in implementing Wood’s design. Historical documents, including building leases and rate books, as well as Walter Ison's "The Georgian Buildings of Bath," provide further details.