3, Bathwick Hill

BATHWICK HILL (South side)

No. 3 11/08/72

GV II

Detached house. C.1825. Probably by John Pinch. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, single pitched slate roof with paired windows to a C20 central dormer and moulded stacks to coped gable ends. PLAN: Double depth. EXTERIOR: Two storeys with attic and lower ground floor; symmetrical three window front. Returned coped parapet, cornice, frieze and first floor sill band; six/six pane sash windows, that over the porch has louvred shutters. Shallow projecting enclosed stone porch, lavishly enriched with a Regency ogee motif, fluted and reeded, with eagles¿ heads, leaves and pineapple finials, carried on Soanian pilasters with incised decoration. The set back door has a large circular panel to the centre. INTERIOR: Not inspected. 1947 photographs in National Monument Record records ceiling to stairs embellished with heavy plaster cornices with meander pattern and egg-and-dart enrichment; six-panel doors with rosettes to corners of frame; chimneypieces with reeded surrounds decorated with Adamesque reliefs. ADDITIONAL FEATURES: The gatepiers repeat the Soanian incised ornament of the porch, and have good cast iron railings with anthemion decoration. HISTORY: A fine late Georgian villa forming part of the upward development of Bathwick Hill, and notable for its door in particular which shows a flamboyant display of decorative masonry, of a type more often associated with furniture of this period. The date is taken from the conveyance from the Earl of Pulteney¿s estate. The drawings for this and other houses close by came from the Darlington Estate Office, to which Pinch was surveyor. SOURCES: Beyond Mr Pulteney¿s Bridge¿ (Bath Preservation Trust exhib. Cat. 1987), 47, where the original elevation design (but with a plainer door treatment) is reproduced; Robert Bennett,The Last of the Georgian Architects of Bath¿, Bath History IX (2002), 100.

Listing NGR: ST7601264733