Bathwick Grange

Bathwick Grange

A detached house on the north side of Bathwick Hill, built around 1829 by the architect Henry Edmund Goodridge (1797–1864), who himself lived here until 1848. Originally known as Montebello, it is constructed in ashlar with slate roofs.

The house displays an irregular picturesque plan, with the main block set at right angles to the street. Its most distinctive features are an octagonal tower at the south-west corner and an octagonal conservatory at the north-west with a square belvedere tower above. The design spans two storeys and a basement, presenting a richly detailed and intricate picturesque composition that makes striking use of its hillside setting.

The entrance front includes a two-light casement with an arched head and a large eight-pane margin light sash, both fitted with horizontal louvred shutters, above a deep canted bay containing long French casements with a blind tympanum and moulded archivolt, finished with a flat roof and moulded edge. To the left stands a pair of large glazed doors with a radial fanlight, accessed by four steps plus one, beneath a portico with partial entablature supported on slender unfluted Doric columns set on high pedestals. The turret to the left rises to attic level (formerly taller) with a sill band at mid-height, featuring one arched sash and one square sash on the left, and a large four-pane sash in an architrave on the right above a sunk panel. The top is balustraded and extends to an attic storey set back from the principal eaves, which is carried on a stone gutter supported by paired square brackets. The right return displays a central eaves stack with modillion capping above two blind lights and one twelve-pane light with moulded architraves, and an inserted twelve-pane light at ground floor level. At basement level, reached by a straight flight of stone steps enclosed by a stone balustrade, are three twelve-pane sashes protected by bars. A small lean-to with a door sits to the right, with the rear of the service link beyond, containing one shallow three-pane light.

Facing the entrance courtyard on the left is a three-arched loggia with a central verandah and open stone balustrade carried on small scroll supporters. The rear wall contains three large openings with French casements, arched at ground floor and square above. The stone eaves matches the front elevation, and there is a deep but narrow stack with modillion capping to a low-pitched coped gable. Set back and to the left is the service link, featuring wide garage doors below plain walling and a two-light casement to a balcony with open balustrade, followed by the lofty but narrow tower with a pyramidal roof on deep bracketed eaves. The tower displays open arched faces in sunk panels with plain quoin pilasters. The south face has a small arched light above a square light at lower levels, with raised pilaster quoins throughout.

Across the west front runs a stone terrace enclosed by a stone balustrade in five panels with square panelled piers and terminals bearing high-relief lion heads. The balustrade terminates at an opening with wide octagonal panelled piers carrying urns; behind the right-hand pier are three further panels of balustrade set at an angle to the main front. A round fountain with a bowl carried on a three-legged base stands in front of the west front. A subsidiary entrance from the street is set into the retaining wall, with an arched carriage store flanked by doors, the right-hand one fitted with a decorative cast iron grille.

Most of the house was designed prior to Goodridge's journey to Italy in 1829. The campanile-like belvedere tower post-dates that visit and shows his strong reliance on Italian sources. The house represents one of Bath's most picturesque suburban villas and introduced the newly fashionable Italianate style into domestic architecture at an early date, demonstrating the considerable success Goodridge had already achieved by his early thirties. The tall conservatory at the north-west was reinstated around 2000. The interior was not inspected at the time of listing.