Nos 5-20 (Consec) And Attached Wall And Railings

A crescent of sixteen terrace houses, now in college use, built between 1791 and 1820 and designed by John Eveleigh. The western end (Nos. 1-6) was never constructed above ground. Nos. 5-7 and 10-13 were gutted by incendiary bombing in 1942 and subsequently restored.

The crescent is built in limestone ashlar with slate mansard roofs featuring dormers and moulded stacks. Each house is three storeys with attics and basements, arranged in three bays. The crescent curves outward from a central pair of houses, descending downhill to the east. The parapet is subtle and pierced by circles in front of dormers, with a modillioned cornice, frieze, and ground floor platband running continuously. Windows of each house step downward in groups of three. All have six-over-six-pane sash windows and six-panel doors beneath rectangular fanlights with semicircular tracery and cornices on consoles.

The dominant feature is the symmetrical central pair, Nos. 10 and 11, known to have been designed by John Eveleigh. These are stepped slightly forward and not curved in plan like the rest of the terrace. They are surmounted by a full-width broken segmental pediment with a central pedestal and urn. The tympanum is richly carved with swags caught up by pegs and rings. Moulded architraves rest on continuous sill string courses to the upper floor windows, with garlands of husks looped over paterae to the centre. The first floor windows have cornices and a semicircular arched niche to the centre, mounted by an open triangular pediment with festoons to the tympanum. The central pair of doors each have masks of frosted vermiculation to tall triple keystones reaching the cornices on consoles that terminate in carved leaves. Restored twentieth-century overlights are present. Flanking windows have plain architraves with stepped triple keystones and twentieth-century horned six-over-six-pane sash windows.

The houses flanking the central pair are simpler in treatment. Those to the left have doors to the right; those to the right have doors to the left. Nos. 5-7 were reconstructed after bombing, though the parapet and cornice appear to be original. No. 8 has balconettes to the second floor and an early nineteenth-century trellised first floor balcony on cast iron brackets with a swept canopy and six-over-nine-pane sash windows. Its doorcase features banded rustication, an unusual acanthus leaf mask keystone, and a twentieth-century fanlight. No. 9 has balconettes to the upper floors, twentieth-century horned six-over-six-pane sash windows, and a similar doorcase with crown glass to the original cobweb fanlight. Nos. 12, 13, and 14 are similar, with Nos. 13 and 14 having acanthus leaves to the keystones. No. 15 is similar but without balconettes. No. 16 has an original crown glass fanlight, no balconettes, and plain keystones. Nos. 17-20 have their first floor sills lowered to the platband. No. 17 has twentieth-century horned six-over-six-pane sash windows and a plain keystone over the original crown glass fanlight. No. 18 has late nineteenth-century plate glass sash windows, a mid-nineteenth-century balcony on scroll brackets to the first floor, and an original fanlight; the circular panels in the parapet have been cut away. No. 19 has semicircular plan balconettes to the first floor and a plain overlight, with similar treatment to the parapet. No. 20, stepped slightly forward, features banded rustication and incised voussoirs reaching the platband to two left-hand ranges of the ground floor, with balconettes to the first floor. The range to the right cants back; the door to the left of it has a blocked overlight and a low small circular window to the right.

The rear elevation is built in limestone rubble and render. The central houses have a full attic storey. Nine houses to the left were rebuilt after bombing except No. 8, which retains crown glass to its six-over-six-pane sash windows with balconettes. There are a few one and two-storey rear lobbies. Some rear party walls at the right end of the terrace project to provide stacks to rear lobbies, some of which are brick. Eight-over-eight-pane sash windows with balconettes are mostly nineteenth and twentieth-century additions.

The interiors were not inspected during survey, but many panelled shutters and six-panel doors with fanlights to the rear of the hall are known to survive. A series of 1925 photographs of the interior of No. 12, held in the National Monuments Record, record extensive plasterwork including decorative arches on brackets to the ground floor passage, open-string dog-leg staircases with cantilevered stone treads with mahogany rails and wrought iron lyre decoration with stick balusters, marble chimneypieces, and arches between reception rooms.

Good area railings are present. The land slopes down to the right, with the terrace at forecourt level. A revetment wall rises to approximately 2 metres high, built in ashlar to the front (approximately 10 metres) and rubblestone to the right return (approximately 6 metres). It is attached to the right-hand corner of No. 20, and railings to its top include a support for a former lamp bracket.

This development continues the sinuous line of Lansdown Crescent. It was commenced by John Eveleigh in 1790 but abandoned for financial reasons, resuming only around 1820. It forms one of the most unusual of Bath's crescents and one of the most characterful set-piece sequences on the northern slopes of the city. Despite extensive post-World War II reconstruction, the crescent retains very high architectural interest.