1-14 (Consec) With Area Railings

Widcombe Crescent: Fourteen terrace houses with basement areas and railings, built circa 1805, almost certainly designed by Charles Harcourt Masters. The buildings are constructed in limestone ashlar with slate mansard roofs, some with pantile or concrete tile.

The crescent forms a generous curve with a carriage approach on the concave east side, comprising five pairs to the centre and two single houses at each end. The central pair and one house at each end are slightly stepped forward. All houses are very deep, with stairs returning to the front and larger rooms to the rear because of the steep fall in land. The rear has a full extra basement storey, reading as basement to the front, and some houses have further sub-basements.

The front elevation presents three storeys, attic, basement and some sub-basements. Windows are almost all sashes, many with glazing bars, with variations as detailed. Few windows have balconettes. Paired houses (Nos.3-12) each have one or two twelve-pane sash dormers—plain to No.5, and a wide dormer to No.4. Each pair has a tripartite central sash flanked by singles at first and second floors, generally twelve-pane, but plain to ground floor of Nos.5, 6, and 7, and twelve-pane to basement areas. The tripartite window normally has eight:twelve:eight panes, but eight:nine:eight at second floor to Nos.3/4, six:nine:nine pane to second floor Nos.9/10, and six:blind:six at first and second floors to Nos.11/12, with the central light glazed but blocked behind. No.10 has a two-light casement with margin panes at second floor.

Centred to each pair, under a sunk elliptical headed panel with ribboned festoons of husks, are original panelled doors with swagged fanlights, separated by a narrow panelled pilaster. High relief rosettes appear in the spandrel over the pilaster. The two houses at each end differ slightly and provide articulation to the whole. No.1 has a two-light dormer above a tripartite eight:twelve:eight sash at second floor, similar but without bars to first floor, and paired sashes with margin panes to four sides to the left of an arched doorway with a large central roundel and fanlight, and a plain sash to the basement. No.2 has a small dormer above two twelve-pane sashes at first and second floors, and a single to the left of an arched doorway with original panelled door and fanlight, with a twelve-pane sash to the basement. No.13 is similar, with two small two-light casement dormers and all plain sashes in splayed surrounds (except basement), with a door to the left. No.14, with a lower flat-roofed extension to the left, has two twentieth-century dormers above plain tripartite sashes at second floor and first floor, but with segmental heads to the lights. The ground floor has plain paired sashes, and the basement area is glazed over. An addition to the left presents a two-storey blank wall to the front.

A plain band above the ground floor and a continuous sill band to the second floor are articulated by a moulded cornice with blocking containing open balustrades above the windows, and a parapet. This articulating detail steps down between Nos.1/2 and 3/4, and again between Nos.10/11, 12/13, and 13/14. Above Nos.7/8 the inscription "WIDCOMBE CRESCENT" is incised on the platband in fine Roman capitals. Paired houses have plain pilasters at either end. Party divisions and end gables are coped, with eight deep ashlar stacks. The basement area to each house is contained by simple spike railings on a stone curb to a rounded top, and railings return to the front with a paved bridge. Small gates to basement stairs serve Nos.3, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13, with some original stone steps remaining to Nos.10 and 11. No.1 has a plain overthrow with a replaced lantern.

The return at the east end runs with Widcombe Hill, splaying out from the original end of the crescent and increasing the size of this house. A high coping rises behind the flat roof, and the severely plain wall has twelve-pane and eight-pane sashes plus two blind lights, above which is a sash with diagonal bars, with two arched lights (one with margin panes) at ground floor level. All are set to a broad band above rubble walling, which continues down the hill as a boundary. At the far end, the gable to No.14 is raised to centre with a single light, and below the terrace on the extended section is an extra storey with an arched light to the right. The extension returns to the rear with a door to the pavement at the lower level.

The broad rear elevation to the houses has dormers above four levels of fenestration, and sometimes a door or window at the sixth level in the sub-basement. Normally two dormers serve each house, paired and single, but No.4 has a full-width dormer with 12:16:16:12-pane lights. No.5, 7, and 14 have twentieth-century dormers, and Nos.2, 6, 7, and 8 have one dormer each. Below are normally tripartite sashes, some with bars but many plain, at three floor levels, with various singles and doubles with further additions below. No.1 has a tripartite sash on each side of a twelve-pane sash, and a wide verandah with a tented canopy on eight standards and five supporting brackets to the main ground floor. Below this level is a tripartite and two single sashes above a large flat-roofed single-storey bow with large arched lights and central doors to a small porch. Nos.2 and 3 each have two sashes to each level, not tripartite lights, and No.4 has large ten:fifteen:ten pane sashes to ground and first floors, with verandas and standards. Various balconettes are generally at first floor level. No.11 has aluminium replacement sashes on this front. A small cornice with blocking course and parapet is stepped as on the front, and the walling is all in ashlar except for some sub-basement areas.

The interiors were not inspected. Nos.3, 9, 11, 12, and 13 have been subdivided in 1987, 1971, 1977, 1988, and 1985 respectively.

Subsidiary features include a decorative cast overthrow outside No.1 and railings to the fronts.

The Crescent is grouped with Widcombe Terrace to its east, built at the same time, and is described as "one of the most charming building ensembles in Bath". The curved rear, with its Coliseum-like bulk, is particularly impressive seen from below. The attribution to Harcourt Masters is based on the appearance of his name in several leases. The crescent is novel for its semi-concealed street front and contrasting imposing curved rear, which, with its Coliseum-like bulk, would have afforded occupants fine westward views towards Beechen Cliff and was thus designed with Picturesque principles to the fore. Stylistically, the crescent is a transitional work, linking the legacy of the younger Wood with the Regency style typified by John Pinch, but with Masters's own idiosyncrasies.