18 And 19, Devonshire Buildings

A pair of terrace houses dating from approximately 1800 to 1804, likely designed by Charles Harcourt Masters. The front facade is rendered rubble, with slate roofs. The houses have a compact double-depth plan, with access from the south side, a principal elevation, and a garden to the north.

They are three storeys high, each with two windows. The windows are mostly plain sashes, with tripartite windows in the outer bays on the first floor, and single-light windows in the inner bays. No. 18 features a single light tripartite window blind on the first floor, and a Venetian window. The ground floor windows are single sashes, with a panelled door under a tent hood on latticed standards at No. 18. No. 19 is similar, but the sidelights to the door are blind, a further light has been added to the second floor, and there is a door on the right. Iron flower guards are present on the first-floor windows. A platband sits above the ground floor, followed by a cornice, blocking course, and a parapet. Coped party walls feature stacks, with a smaller stack in the centre.

The rear of the houses is fully built out to pavement level in rubble, with various sashes, some blocked. Those at No. 18 have flush moulded wood architraves, and a door with a slab hood and cheeks with reeded front edges. No. 19 has a 20th-century door and hood with cheeks.

No. 18 was recorded by the Bath Preservation Trust in 1994 and features a Venetian window on the first floor with a circular pane above the central arch. It contains a tiled fireplace with a later surround in the ground-floor sitting room, and a well approximately 100 feet deep in the kitchen. A cantilevered staircase has a mahogany cross-banded handrail. No. 19 was also recorded by the Bath Preservation Trust in 1994 and has undergone a measured survey. It features a marble slate mantle and surround with a shallow gold design and three horizontal panels, a panelled door with raised figures of Diana and Ceres, and a folding mahogany butler’s tray in the hall.

On the north side, two pairs of channelled ashlar square gate piers, the centre pair conjoined, with moulded cappings, support 20th-century wooden gates. There is a concave arch to each side, leading to coursed stone walls with a plain coping, approximately 1.7 metres high at No. 18 and 1.3 metres high at No. 19, which sweep forward and terminate in simple square piers. Stonewalls also return at the party divisions. The pair of houses are unique in the row for having boundary walls set back from the normal pavement edge. They are part of a long speculative row, exhibiting numerous variations and retaining much of their original detailing to both fronts. A relevant indenture dates to 1st May 1790 relating to No. 19.