Nos. 18A, 19 And 20 And Attached Railings

Three houses, now offices, at numbers 18A, 19 and 20 Queen Square, forming one symmetrical pedimented front with a long northern return to Queen Square Place. Built circa 1730 by John Wood the Elder as part of his layout for the west side of the square, with 20th-century alterations.

The building is constructed in limestone ashlar with a slate roof. It is a Palladian villa with a hipped mansard roof. The main front is three storeys with attic and basement, arranged as two plus three plus two windows. The central three bays are brought forward under a pediment. The roof is punctuated by four dormers: nine-pane at second-floor level in moulded architraves, and twelve-pane at first-floor level in architraves with cornice hoods and Ionic pilasters to the pediments (segmental to the centre). All windows are glazing-bar sashes set to a deep sill band, though in the first two bays the sill band is interrupted.

The rusticated ground floor contains twelve-pane sashes in Gibbsian surrounds with segmental or triangular pediments and heavy triple keystones to the outer bays. Bays three and four have moulded architraves set in recessed arched panels. Bay two features a large four-panel door with plain transom light and segmental pediment. Bay five has a large eight-panel door in a moulded architrave under a plain tympanum above a sunk panel. The centre three bays are marked by an impost band under arches with prominent rusticated voussoirs. The basement contains three twelve-pane sashes and a plank door with margin pane transom light; a light steel stair is positioned at the left hand end.

Above the main elevation runs a modillion cornice with blocking course and parapet. Small attic pedestals sit upon the pediment but no urns are present. A deep ashlar stack rises to the right, with a smaller stack to the rear left.

The long return to the north has a rendered ground floor. Above this extends a five-bay section covered by a pediment containing three fine terminal urns. Two small oculi with radial bars and four keystones pierce this pediment. The second floor has nine-pane sashes in architraves; the first floor features twelve-pane sashes with architraves and cornice hoods on pulvinated friezes, the centre light also bearing a pediment on consoles. All are set to a deep sill band. The ground floor includes two painted-in sashes and three twelve-pane sashes, all in Gibbsian surrounds with triple keystones. A central six-panel door in an Ionic doorcase with pediment and rusticated inner surround provides the main entrance to this face. The main floors have flat pilaster quoins. An extra bay at the far end, finished with a flat parapet, has a blind light at each level above a four-panel door with a slab hood on brackets.

The rear elevation shows a central three-bay section with pediment containing an oculus, above a twelve-pane sash and at first-floor level a four-pane sash with cornice hoods. Wings extend to either side with twelve-pane sashes in plain reveals, and further sashes to the rear wall. Two deep ashlar stacks rise from the rear mansard roof.

Interior inspection in December 1993 revealed that numbers 18A, 19 and 20 are interconnected. In number 18A, original doors survive to the front and back rooms on the first floor, and the staircase is original. Number 20 retains two original doors on the first floor. Restoration work was undertaken in 1989.

Basement areas are enclosed by cast iron railings on stone curbs, returned to the doorways.

Historically, these three houses correspond with the fronts of projecting wings which originally flanked a recessed mansion set back behind a courtyard. This central recessed section was demolished in 1830 when the Institution was constructed. The elevations facing into the courtyard were destroyed and entrance arrangements subsequently altered. The surviving entrance on the north return demonstrates how Wood originally designed a single architectural unit while creating separate entrances to each of the three houses.

John Wood leased the site from Robert Gay from 1728 onwards and granted underleases between 1729 and 1731 to various developers. The houses are first recorded as occupied in the rate books in 1734. Wood had originally intended to level the sloping site but this was abandoned on grounds of cost. Queen Square represents exceptional importance as the first large-scale instance of town planning in Bath. Drawing on precedents from contemporary London house-building, Wood created a monumental ensemble on the sloping site west of the former city walls. Each side of the square forms a symmetrical composition, though none are identical. Queen Square is the earliest and lowest element in the sequence of set-pieces by the Woods, culminating in the Royal Crescent.