Smallcombe House

SYDNEY BUILDINGS 656-1/42/1630 (West side) No.41 Smallcombe House

(Formerly Listed as: SYDNEY BUILDINGS No.41) 11/08/72

GV II

Detached house on sloping site backing onto Kennet and Avon Canal. c1820. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar facade, rough ashlar returns, double pitched slate roof with moulded stacks to coped gable ends. PLAN: Double depth plan. EXTERIOR: Two storeys and lower ground floor; symmetrical three-window front. Ground floor platband and banded rustication to ground floor with radial voussoirs and slightly dropped keystones to flat arched recesses; prostyle porch with Tuscan columns and entablature, containing a six-panel door with circular panels, to centre. Eight/eight-pane sash ground floor windows; to left small rectangular window with grille. Six/six-pane sash windows to first floor have balconettes. Coped parapets and cornices to front and rear, first floor sill band. Cast iron railings with spearheaded finials on stone plinth to front of house, with pyramid-capped gate piers. INTERIOR: Bath Preservation Trust Interiors Survey (1991) reports the survival of a curved open-string stone staircase with plain balusters and mahogany hand-rail to right of large, stone-flagged, entrance hall; large drawing room along full width of rear ground floor with folding doors in centre, painted wood fireplace at each end, plaster cornice with running flower motif; reeded architraves with paterae to corners; chimneypiece of black and white marble, flanked by alcoves with reeded architraves to small sitting room to left of entrance; chimneypieces, six-panel doors, alcoves, cupboards, plasterwork survives to upper bedrooms; basement with French doors to verandah, study and dining room with wood and stone chimneypieces, arched vaults beneath pavement.

Listing NGR: ST7588864572