Beau Nash'S House, With Railings

Beau Nash's House, with Railings

House, formerly detached, now a restaurant. Built around 1720 by Thomas Greenway as part of his development in St John's Close. The site previously occupied the city's refuse pit, located just beyond the western walls of Bath.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with a slate mansard roof. It follows a plain rectangular plan and stands two storeys tall with an attic storey and basement. The principal south front facing St John's Place is narrow and three bays wide, while the east front overlooking Saw Close extends to five bays. The house now abuts later development at its north end.

The entrance comprises a large six-panel fielded door with a glazed arched head, set within a channelled surround with voussoirs. This is embellished with fine engaged three-quarter column Corinthian doorcase to a fully ornamented entablature, which includes paterae to the frieze and carries two embellished panelled pedestals with eagles on hemispheres. All windows are glazing-bar sashes. The south front features a shaped gable containing two twelve-pane windows above three eighteen-pane windows, with deeper eighteen-pane windows at first floor (the one to the left of the doorway is blind). All windows sit in raised plat surrounds with edge moulds. The east front has the same window pattern, though bay two is blind at each level and bay one at first floor is painted. The basement contains two lights and a door.

Detailing includes a moulded plinth, ground floor sill band, cornice stopped each side of the doorway, first floor sill band, and a crowning entablature with coped parapet. All trim detail returns to the east front. The parapet is swept down above three closely spaced twelve-pane dormers, which sit above eighteen-pane sashes in surrounds matching the front elevation. Two stacks are visible: one deep stack on the return and a second stack forward on the mansard above bay two.

The interior includes a large principal first floor room with painted softwood panelling and a modillion box cornice, though the building has not been recently inspected internally.

A very narrow basement area is enclosed by simple iron railings on a stone curb. The entrance front is largely concealed by an outer foyer belonging to the adjoining Theatre Royal.

The house gained considerable renown through its occupancy by Beau Nash, the Master of Ceremonies. A modern painted inscription on the blind ground floor window records that this was the home of Beau Nash and his handsome and faithful mistress Juliana Popjoy until his death in 1761, aged 86. The original south entrance front was embellished with statues, eagles and an urn on the parapet, as shown in an 1836 drawing by Buckler and reconstruction drawings by Walter Ison. The blind ground floor window is a later addition. Wood described Greenway's work as "the Palace of the King of Bath...the richest Sample of Building, till then executed, in the City....", though he was critical of the profusion of ornament. The original appearance has been compromised by the entrance portico of the Theatre Royal. This is a notable example of a late Baroque town house with strong historical connections to Bath's Georgian period.