No. 14 And Attached Railings

No. 14 and Attached Railings, Great Bedford Street

A terrace house dating from around 1790–1793, designed by John Palmer. The building occupies a corner position at the junction of Great Bedford Street with St James's Square and has a distinctive wedge-shaped plan.

The house is constructed of limestone ashlar to the front, with rubble to the basement and a mixture of ashlar and rubble to the rear. It has a double-pile parapeted roof, with Welsh slate covering visible to the rear and coped party walls on both sides. The party wall to the right has been partially rebuilt in brick. To the left, two ashlar stacks—probably shared with No. 12 Great Bedford Street—rise from the coped wall.

The building comprises four storeys and a basement, with a five-bay front elevation and two bays to the rear. The staircase is positioned to the rear of the property.

The front elevation has a five-window range across each storey. The first floor contains five early 19th-century plate glass sashes with horns, set in splayed reveals with lowered stone sills and wrought iron balconettes. The second and third floors each have five six-over-six sashes in plain reveals with stone sills and wrought iron balconettes; the sashes to the centre-left and centre-right of the third floor have horns. The ground floor has four plate glass horned sashes in plain reveals with stone sills. The basement has four six-over-six sashes in plain reveals with stone sills, with a pair to the centre-left sharing a continuous sill.

The main entrance is positioned centre-right on the ground floor and consists of a six-panel door with flush and fielded panels, a cast iron wreath knocker, and a three-pane overlight set within a pedimented Doric doorcase. A Pennant-paved crossover runs flush with the pavement at this point. To the centre-left of the basement is a six-panel door with beaded and glazed panels, accessed via limestone area steps with Pennant treads and a wrought iron handrail.

Architectural detail includes a band course over the ground floor, a frieze and moulded cornice over the second floor, and moulded eaves cornice with coped parapet. A lead hopperhead and downpipe are centrally positioned to the front elevation.

The rear elevation, partially visible, shows an eight-over-eight sash to the second floor and six-over-six horned sashes with simple balconettes also to the second floor. Twentieth-century windows occupy the second half-landing.

The interior was recorded by the Bath Preservation Trust in 1991. A four-flight stone cantilevered staircase with two newel posts on the ground floor features one mushroom and one acorn knob. The drawing room is divided by an arch with decorative scrolls in support, and features ornate ceiling roses. The ground floor dining room has eleven wall panels enclosed by reeding banded with ribbon. Original fittings include an old brass doorbell and a folding butler's table in the hall, and an original trivet on the hob grate in the third floor rear bedroom. The basement contains stone wine racks and a billiard room, with metal security bars reinforcing the outside door.

The attached wrought iron railings and gate feature cast arrowheads mounted on limestone bases.

Historical Context

The house is part of an incomplete development of St James's Square, built on land leased by Fielder, King, Hewlett and Broom from Sir Peter Rivers Gay on 25 March 1790. Great Bedford Street forms one of four diagonal approaches to the square and was originally intended to continue to the north-east but was never completed. Nos. 7–11 Great Bedford Street were destroyed by bombing in 1942.