Glen Avon And Glen Avon Lodge

This is an eclectic Italianate villa, originally a detached house and now divided into two dwellings, built between 1858 and 1860 by the architect James Wilson, who initially occupied the property. The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with slate roofs.

The villa is arranged as an L-shaped block to the right, with a three-storey belvedere to the left, and an octagonal turret positioned between them. A gabled projection to the right-hand block features deep eaves and a projecting central section with a pierced panel to the apex. The ground floor has semicircular arched recesses with impost bands framing two-over-two-pane sash windows with horizontal glazing bars, and a full-height two-leaf four-pane casement window under a raised shouldered arch with a segmental arch top and keystone. A set back range to the left of the gable similarly features an arch over a six-over-six-pane sash window to the first floor, accompanied by a pierced stone balustrade on a projecting enclosed porch. The painted porch has a coved cornice with dog-tooth motifs, a roll-edge arris, and an impost band to a semicircular three-pane fanlight over a three-vertical-panelled door. The porch extends to the left, incorporating two margin-paned semicircular arched windows, and forms a balcony to the three-storey belvedere, which has a timber finial to its pavilion roof. Further features include a flat arched recess over paired semicircular arched two-over-two-pane second floor sash windows, and a narrow canted full-height bay with timber colonnettes to the first floor.

Rising from the left of the porch is an octagonal turret with a wrought iron weather vane, elaborate eaves cornice, narrow semicircular arched windows, moulded string courses to the impost, sill, and blind pierced apron of the upper window, and raised arches to those below. The structure boasts wide bracketed eaves and wide gabled, machicolated stacks to the rear and the right return. A bellcote of similar design to the chimney stack is also present at the rear. A lower range to the left, now a separate dwelling called Glen Avon Lodge, has substantial 20th-century additions.

The interior has not been inspected. Sion Road (originally Alma Road) was laid out in the mid-1850s on part of the former estate of William Beckford. The villa, first listed in the Bath Directory for 1860, exemplifies the Goodridge-inspired picturesque Italianate style prevalent in early Victorian Bath, and Wilson’s skill as a practitioner of this style. James Wilson resided in the house until his death in 1900 and is buried in Lansdown Cemetery.