No.7 And Attached Railings And Vaults

OXFORD ROW 656-1/30/1167 No.7 and attached railings and vaults (Formerly Listed as: LANSDOWN ROAD (West side) Nos 1-12 (consec) Oxford Row) 12/06/50

GV II

House, now flats. c1775. Probably designed by Thomas Warr Atwood, who certainly developed them. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar to front, painted to basement, not visible to rear, double pile parapeted mansard roof, Welsh slate to front, not visible to rear, with ashlar stack with early clay pots rising from coped party wall to left to front roof back-to-back with stack to No.24 Bennett Street (qv), stack to rear not visible. Staircase to front. EXTERIOR: Three storeys, attic and basement, three window front. First floor has three plate glass horned sashes in splayed ovolo moulded architraves rising from lowered stone sills and with friezes and cornices, second floor has three plate glass horned sashes in splayed ovolo moulded architraves rising from stone sills. Ground floor has to left two plate glass horned sashes in splayed reveals with stone sills, to right six panel door with flush, fielded and glazed panels in stone doorcase with cyma moulded architrave on flat surround with moulded brackets to moulded cornice, small window to right of doorcase, one step to pennant paved crossover with C19 cast iron footscraper. Basement has six/six sash in plain reveal with stone sill to left, six panel door now with three glazed panes in place of two upper panels and with three pane overlight to centre, further window under crossover, two doorways to vaults, C20 area steps. Two double dormers with plate glass horned sashes. Band course over ground floor, modillion eaves cornice and coped parapet. Lead downpipe attached to left. Rear elevation not visible. INTERIOR: Not inspected. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Attached wrought iron railings and gate with shaped heads on limestone bases. HISTORY: These houses were developed on Council land by Thomas Warr Atwood, who obtained the ground in 1773 (Council Minutes 2 March 1773). They are standard Palladian elevations of the 1770's, and could be the work of Atwood, of John Wood the Younger, or of Thomas Jelly, but the evidence suggests that Atwood is the most likely. 'Atwood was a competent though conservative architect whose elevations are excellent examples of the English Palladian tradition as applied to street architecture.' (Colvin). SOURCES: W. Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bath (1948), 35 and 159; H. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1660-1840 (1978), 77.

Listing NGR: ST7493365387