Nos. 3-13 (Consec) And Attached Railings And Overthrows

A terrace of eleven houses built around 1810 by the Bath architect John Pinch the Elder, with 19th and 20th century additions. The terrace comprises ten matching three-bay houses stepping up the hill, with a similar four-bay house at number 3 featuring a curved front forming the approach from Park Place.

Construction and Materials

The front elevations are built of limestone ashlar, now partly painted, with ashlar and coursed squared limestone rubble to the rear. The roofs are double pile and parapeted with coped gable walls, covered in Welsh slate, artificial slate and pantiles. The rear ranges of numbers 10, 11 and 12 have been extended upwards. Ashlar chimney stacks rise from the right end positions on coped party walls, with some early clay pots surviving on both front and rear ranges.

Architectural Description

The typical house is four storeys above basement with a three-window range. The ground floor displays channelled rustication forming voussoirs over the door and window openings, with a continuous band course above that ramps up to the next house. The entrance consists of an eight-panel door with reeded and raised and fielded panels set in a reeded frame with paterae at the corners, flanked by sidelights with diamond-pane glazing and a decorative fanlight, all within a round-headed plain reveal. The door is approached by pennant stone steps. To the right of the door are two six-over-six pane sash windows in plain reveals with stone sills. The basement level has two six-over-six sash windows in plain reveals with pennant stone area steps.

The first floor features three six-over-nine pane sashes. The outer windows sit in plain reveals, while the central window has a surround of reeded pilaster strips with carved console brackets supporting a frieze with rosette decoration and moulded cornice above. A wrought iron balcony on a reeded stone base sits on six brackets. A Pompeian scroll frieze runs continuously above the first floor, ramping up to the next house. The second floor has three six-over-six sashes in plain reveals with stone sills and a moulded cornice above, continuous and ramping up. The third floor contains three similar three-over-six sashes, with a moulded eaves cornice and coped parapet above, also continuous and ramping upward.

Number 3 differs in having four bays with a curved front and the central first floor feature doubled. It has a deeper fanlight over the front door. The area steps are gone and a small lean-to built of Welsh slate ashlar occupies the area.

Alterations and Condition

No house retains original windows above basement level. These have been replaced with plate glass and glazing bar horned sashes, with some casements at first floor. The balconies to numbers 3 and 4 have been rebuilt with iron brackets and timber decks. Evidence of former balcony tent roofs survives at numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9, variously infilled in ashlar beneath the front doorsteps.

The rear elevations have 19th and 20th century sashes. Numbers 3, 4 and 5 largely retain early glazing bar sashes. Number 4 has a domed semicircular bow at the first landing, and number 9 has a full-height bow. The rears of numbers 6, 7, 8 and part of 9 have been rebuilt.

Interiors

The houses are now divided into flats. Number 3's fourth floor top flat was recorded by Bath Preservation Trust in 1993. The front room has six-panelled doors and a wooden mantle fireplace, though the hearth and grate have been removed. The ceiling has a moulded cornice with reeded frieze. The rear room has a cast iron grate with reeded cast iron surround set into a stone frame. The ground floor, inspected by Bath Council in 1980, features elaborate central ceiling plasterwork, a modern Adam fireplace in the front room, and modern French windows to the garden.

Number 4 was partially inspected and revealed a cantilevered stone dog-leg staircase with moulded soffit, cast iron balusters with decorative panels at landings and a mahogany grip handrail. The bow at the first half landing has a triple curved sash (three-over-three, six-over-six, three-over-three) in a surround with diamond fretwork decoration. The back of the front door has eight panels with applied moulding with voided corners. A screen with fanlight and pair of half-glazed doors in a reeded surround divides the entrance hall. There is cornice work to the outer and inner hall, with a ceiling rose and arch with key pattern decoration to the inner hall. The original dresser survives in the hall, though without its central shelves.

Throughout number 4, six-panel doors with applied moulding with voided corners on panels sit in reeded architraves on the ground and first floors, with plain six-panel doors in simpler reeded architraves on the second floor and 20th century doors on the third floor. The first floor has moulded cornice with rinceau border on ceiling, while the second and third floors have reeded cornices.

The ground floor front room of number 4 has a late 19th century black and brown veined marble fireplace without grate, an enriched cornice with diamond-pattern border on ceiling and a similar oval ceiling rose (comparable to New Sydney Place). Two plate glass sash windows each have a pair of two-panel, two-leaved shutters with applied beaded moulding with voided corners on panels, with matching panelled soffits and panels below the window. One modern door replaces the original, though the original opening remains visible on the hall side. The ground floor rear room has a glazing bar sash in the original splayed reveal with reeded architrave, and shutters similar to the front room.

Number 5, inspected by Bath Council in 1973, has a fine fanlight over the front door and a first floor white and grey marble fireplace with carved brackets.

Number 10, inspected by Bath Council in 1978, has a fine double six-panel front door with arched fanlight with rosette detail above. The ground floor rooms are intact with an Edwardian painted fireplace retaining its original colouring of subdued greens and ochres with modern tiles inserted. There is a very fine ceiling rose. The rear room has grained oak cupboards either side of the fireplace with matching pilasters. A handsome bell pull survives in the front room. The basement is also intact with original fittings, including the range.

Number 12, recorded by Bath Preservation Trust in 2002, has a fine ceiling rose in the first floor left hand front room comprising a seven-banded enclosed pinwheel rosette with oak leaves around a two-banded centre. The outer ring comprises four darts and eighty tongues. The ceiling frieze is highly stylized with alternating intertwined and dovetailed oak leaves and palmettes. The cornice has a berry and leaf garland with acanthus leaves below. The fireplace has a white marble surround with an 1840 addition of a cast iron grate and tiled surround. Two six-over-nine sash windows have lambs tongue glazing bars, with five-panel two-leaved split shutters with panels above and below. A six-panel door has identical architraving to the windows. The other two first floor rooms have an identical cornice but no ceiling rose, with a six-panel door and single window identical to the other room. The rear room facing the garden has a fireplace with a white marble surround and a later 1840 cast iron grate and tiled surround.

Railings and Overthrows

All houses have attached wrought iron railings and gates with shaped tops. Numbers 3 to 8 have wrought iron overthrows with scrollwork and urn decoration. Number 5 has a link-horn attached by the front door.

Historical Context

Cavendish Place was the first substantial development on the lower slopes of Lansdown, begun in 1808. The west-facing position exploited fine views overlooking the pastoral common land and helped to define a hard edge to the city's westward expansion. Numbers 1 and 2 Cavendish Place are more modest than numbers 3 to 13 and are transitional elements in Pinch's overall design, connecting the existing houses in Park Street and Park Place with the more substantial new development higher up. Pinch employed his trademark quadrant ramps here, carrying the string courses up the rising elevations, comparable to Raby Place and Bathwick Hill. Numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9 were gutted by incendiary bombs in 1942 and dismantled to second floor level (photographs held in the National Monument Record).