5-12, Claremont Place

Four pairs of semi-detached villas built in 1817, probably designed by John Pinch the Elder. These are elegant Regency houses in limestone ashlar with originally slate roofs and moulded chimney stacks to the party walls.

The buildings follow a double-depth plan with set-back entrance wings. They are two storeys over basements, each pair presenting a symmetrical three-window range to the street. Every house has one window flanking blind windows to the party walls.

The facades feature parapets with coped returns that rise slightly towards a raised central incised panel. At the corners, segmental arched pier blocks have incised panels and returned cornices. A frieze runs across the front with incised key-patterns to both faces of the clasping pilasters, which have cornices and key capitals beneath the main cornice. First floor sill bands run continuously. The ground floor windows are set in segmental arches within recesses, whilst first floor windows have flat arched heads. The windows are six-over-six-pane sashes with margin panes. The doors are six-panel with diagonal lattice glazing to the margin lights.

Nos 5 and 6 feature returned parapets that sweep up to a higher rear range and have balconettes to the windows. Their single-storey entrance wings have coped parapets and cornices, with six-over-six-pane sash windows and six-panel doors beneath ogee-curved hoods.

Nos 7 and 8 are painted ashlar with two-storey porches and swept parapets to high rear ranges. No. 7 has a double Roman and concrete tile roof. Its ground floor window features an early 20th-century canted bay with thick glazing bars to an eight-over-eight-pane sash window. The basements have been converted to garages. Ogee-curved hoods cap the three-panel door to No. 7 and four-panel door to No. 8, both beneath two-over-two-pane sash windows.

Nos 9 and 10 have two-storey porches. No. 9 retains a six-panel door with plain margin lights and an ogee-curved hood; No. 10 has a four-panel door in a 20th-century porch. Both have two-over-two-pane sash windows above. No. 10 has a balconette to the first floor of the main block.

No. 11 has a two-storey porch with a six-panel door with plain margin lights, late 19th-century horned two-over-two-pane sash windows, and a garage in the basement.

No. 12 retains original windows, a six-panel door with original margin lights, and a two-storey porch with six-over-six-pane sash windows. A further set-back wing has segmental arches to eight-over-eight-pane sash windows and a concrete tile roof. The basement is now a garage.

Interiors recorded by Bath Preservation Trust reveal significant original features. No. 6 (recorded 2000) has a stone staircase with wooden carved decoration on the treads and a cross-banded mahogany rail. The drawing room has arched alcoves on either side of the fireplace with cupboards below and a grey and white marble fireplace.

No. 7 (recorded 1987) retains four-panel connecting doors on the ground floor and an original marble fireplace, although the house has been substantially modernised. A partial inspection of No. 8 by Bath Council in the 1980s found the rear ground floor window retains its original glass, a console grey and white marble fireplace, and a butler's pantry and stillroom to the rear.

No. 9 (recorded 1994) has a ground floor room with a grey and white marble fireplace with Sienna marble inserts. The wooden staircase has a lower supported flight and upper cantilevered section with a mahogany cross-banded handrail. The outer hall has an eight-panelled ceiling and the inner hall has tongue and groove panelling. The same family lived in the house for most of the 20th century.

No. 12 (recorded in the 1990s) retains some of the original shutters and other details.

Nos 9 and 10 were formerly inscribed "Claremont Place 1817" at first floor level, below the plat band, as shown in a 1945 photograph in the National Monuments Record. The elevations show the clear influence of London architects such as George Dance and Sir John Soane, and the group represents a particularly elegant example of the new Regency taste for semi-detached housing, comparable to Pinch's Winifred's Dale of 1810.