20 and 21 Rivers Street and attached railings and vaults

Two terrace houses, now laterally converted into flats, built between 1768 and 1770 as part of the Rivers Street development by John Wood the Younger. Both houses form part of a significant scheme of Georgian townhouses in Bath.

The buildings are constructed in limestone ashlar to the front elevations, with rubble to the sides and rear. Below the basement windows of No. 20 the material is rubble, while No. 21 has a rubble plinth to the basement. Both houses feature a double pile parapeted mansard roof with Welsh slate covering to front and rear. Two rebuilt ashlar chimney stacks rise from the coped party wall to the left of each house.

Each house presents three storeys over an attic and basement, with a three-window frontage. The first floor contains six plate glass horned sash windows in splayed ovolo moulded architraves, rising from lowered moulded stone sills on consoles with friezes and cornices. Small 19th-century cast iron window boxes are fitted to the right-hand window of each house. The second floor likewise has six plate glass horned sashes in ovolo moulded architraves above stone sills.

The ground floor contains, to the left of each house, two plate glass horned sashes in splayed reveals with stone sills. To the right of each house is a six-panel door. The left door, belonging to No. 20, is flush with three glazed panels featuring etched glass, decorated with an 18th-century lion's mask knocker. It sits within an enriched pedimented Doric doorcase raised on one pennant step, with two further steps to a crossover paved with large pennant slabs. A pair of 19th-century cast iron foot-scrapers flank the entrance. No. 21's front door is flush with four glazed panels of similar etched glass and stands in a pedimented Doric doorcase with one pennant step and two steps down to a pennant-paved crossover, with a 19th-century cast iron footscraper.

Basement levels feature two six-over-six sashes in plain reveals with stone sills to each house. To the left (No. 20) is a plank door with three-pane overlight in ashlar infilling beneath the crossover, with one plank door and one window opening to the vaults. To the right (No. 21) is a partially visible panelled door under the crossover, two plank doors, and two glazed window openings to the vaults. No. 20 has limestone area steps with a wrought iron handrail; No. 21 has 20th-century area steps. Both houses display a band course over the ground floor, a continuous modillion cornice, and a coped parapet. A shared lead downpipe runs centrally.

The rear elevations are partially visible. A small plate glass sash appears on the second floor of No. 20, while No. 21 has an eight-over-eight sash and a small tilting window. Each house contains a double dormer with six-over-six sashes.

Each house has attached wrought iron railings and a gate with shaped heads mounted on limestone bases.

Rivers Street was developed on three separate parcels of land. Nos. 1–11 were constructed in conjunction with Catharine Place on ground conveyed on perpetual leasehold from Sir Benet Garrard to Wood and his trustee Brock on 19–20 December 1766. Nos. 16–28 and 36–47 Rivers Street, with areas behind Nos. 46–47, came from the Rivers Estate (owned by Sir Peter Rivers Gay), conveyed to Wood on 5 March 1768 for 99 years. Nos. 28–35 were constructed with Russell Street on ground bought by John Wood and his trustee Andrew Sproule from Thomas and Daniel Omer on 30 December 1768 on perpetual freehold rents. The strip of ground on which Nos. 12–15 and 48–50 Rivers Street stand was probably never acquired by Wood himself. Sites for Nos. 12–15 were conveyed from the Rivers Estate to Thomas and James Beale on 30 December 1774 and 16 October 1776 on perpetual freehold rents. A number of different Bath builders were responsible for implementing Wood's overall design.

Interiors were not inspected.