Nos 1-15 (Consec) And Attached Railings

Fifteen houses forming the west side of St James's Square, Bath, completed between 1790 and 1792, designed by architect John Palmer.

The terrace is built of limestone ashlar to the front, with rubble to the basements and ashlar, rubble and render to the rear. The roofs are of Welsh slate and artificial slate in double pile parapeted mansard form with coped party walls and ashlar stacks, some with clay pots. The building sits on a sloping site falling to the south.

The composition is symmetrical and palace-fronted. The centre house (No.8) is pedimented and projects forward, as do the endmost houses (Nos.1 and 15), which are treated as pavilions. The rest of the terrace is uniform. All houses are of three storeys with attics over basements, each of three bays. The row corresponds with Nos.23-37 St James's Square opposite.

No.8, the centrepiece, has a first floor with three plate glass horned sashes in plain reveals with wrought iron balconettes set within a surround of applied composite order springing from a moulded sill band on four fluted console brackets and supporting a frieze and moulded cornice with triangular pediment over the centre window. The second floor has plate glass horned sashes in plain reveals with stone sills and wrought iron balconettes. The ground floor features two similar windows to the left and to the right a six-panel door with reeded and fielded panels with decorative overlight in a plain reveal, with a pennant paved crossover and cast iron footscraper flush with the pavement. The basement has two six-over-six sashes in splayed reveals with continuous stone sill, a nine-pane glazed door and a twentieth-century window in ashlar infilling under the crossover, with twentieth-century area steps. Two single dormers have two-over-two sashes. V-jointed rustication to the ground floor forms voussoirs over the openings with keystones supporting a band course over the ground floor, frieze, moulded eaves cornice with triangular pediment and coped parapet.

Nos.1 and 15 at the ends of the terrace have similar elevations to No.8 but lack the crowning pediment. No.1 has splayed reveals and lowered sills with simple balconettes, sill band removed, six-over-six sashes to the first and second floors, and a three-pane overlight to the door. No.15 has six-over-six sashes to the first floor, to left and centre with horns but without balconettes, original sills, and six-over-six sashes to the first and second floors with horns on the ground floor, the overlight to the door filled in, and a staircase to the front. Both Nos.1 and 15 have bold incised lettering reading "ST JAMES'S-SQUARE" cut by Peter McLennan around 1988.

Nos.2-7 and 9-14, the intermediate houses, have uniform three-bay fronts largely with plate glass sashes in plain or splayed reveals with stone sills. They feature single, double or triple dormers, six-panel doors in moulded architraves with flat shouldered surrounds with console brackets supporting moulded cornices, band courses over the ground floor, sill bands to the first floor, friezes, moulded eases cornices and coped parapets. Nos.5, 13 and 14 have wrought iron balconettes to the first floor windows, with No.13 also having them to the ground floor windows. Stone area steps with wrought iron handrails are present to Nos.1, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13, variously infilled below crossovers. Lead downpipes are found on Nos.2, 5, 9 and 14, with a lead hopperhead to No.13. Wrought iron lampholders are positioned over the doors to Nos.8 and 11. No.4 has louvred timber sliding shutters to the first, second and third floors with timber sills and fretwork pelmets. The rear elevations feature full height bows to Nos.12 and 14, each with a continuous wrought iron balcony to the first floor. No.6 has a full height canted bay with a cast iron balcony to the first floor. Nos.5 and 15 largely retain early glazing bar sashes. Nos.1, 4, 6, 9, 10 and 11 have mansards built up to a full third floor, and all except No.15 have ashlar, rubble or rendered extensions. Lead hopperheads are present to the rear of Nos.3, 4, 8, 10, 12 and 14.

The interiors have not been systematically inspected, but past site visits have recorded the following features: No.2 has stairs with Doric colonnette rails, three per tread, with moulded tread ends, and double doors dividing the first floor rooms, with considerable original joinery remaining. It was sub-divided into five flats in 1987. No.3 has chimney-pieces with reeded marble surrounds. No.4, sub-divided into flats in 1971, was united with No.5 and subsequently sub-divided into eight flats in 1971. No.6 has an anthemion frieze and Victorian grey marble chimneypiece to the ground floor front room, and a white marble chimney-piece with anthemion consoles to the first floor, together with miscellaneous Victorian alterations; the chimney-pieces were stolen in 1984. No.7 had its basement and ground floor converted into a separate flat in 1985. No.8 features a cantilevered stone stair with wrought iron rails enriched with lyre ornament. No.9 had its basement, second and third floors converted into separate flats in 1996. No.13 was sub-divided into two in 1982.

Attached wrought and cast iron railings and gates accompany the terrace. Nos.1, 8 and 15 have cast railings of baluster form with shaped heads; the intermediate houses have wrought iron railings with urn heads, with shaped heads to No.14. No.3 has a lifting section. The railings are set on limestone bases, some painted.

The development was undertaken on land leased by Messrs. Fielder, King, Hewlett and Broome from Sir Peter Rivers Gay, Lord of the Manor of Walcot, on 25 March 1790. St James's Square represents a development in eighteenth-century town planning theory. Following Wood's Queen Square, it introduces diagonally set approach roads—St James's Street from the south-east, Marlborough Street from the south-west, Great Bedford Street from the north-east and Park Street from the north-west—which form part of the overall conception, creating a more picturesque urban effect. This approach is comparable to the contemporary Laura Place and Sydney Place.

The building lots were sub-let to individual undertakers: Charles Viner received the underlease of No.1 on 30 May 1791 for 96 years from 25 March 1791; John Anstey and Henry Bosanquet received No.2 on 24 June 1792 for 94 years from 24 June 1792; John Copner received No.3 on 24 June 1792 for 94 years from 24 June 1792; William Hewlett received No.4 on 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; Charles Davis received No.5 on 3 November 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; James Broome received No.6 on 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; Henry Street received No.7 on 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; Samuel Ward received No.8 on 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1791; William Hewlett received No.9 on 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; William Hewlett the Younger received No.10 on 5 October 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; Charles Viner received No.11 on 24 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; John Chapman received No.12 on 23 July 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; Giles Fisher received No.13 on 30 November 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; Charles Wheeler received No.14 on 30 November 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790; and Thomas Beale and James Beale received No.15 on 23 October 1790 for 96 years from 24 June 1790.