Nos. 9, 10 And 11 Fountain House And Attached Railings And Vaults

Nos. 9, 10 and 11 Fountain House and Attached Railings and Vaults

Two houses, now converted to hotel and shops, dating from circa 1730–1740 and circa 1775, with the upper floors raised in the 19th century. A shopfront was added in 1886 with further alterations in the 20th century, and the upper floors were converted to hotel use between 1985 and 1987.

No. 11 has a limestone ashlar front and left side, with an ashlar extension to the rear. Nos. 9 and 10 are faced in limestone ashlar to front and rear, with rubble to the basement. No. 11 has a double-pile parapeted roof, hipped to the left, covered with Welsh slate of notably large sizes to the front. Nos. 9 and 10 have parapeted mansard roofs, hipped to the right, with double Roman tiles to front and rear. Two large ashlar chimneys, probably shared, rise from the coped party wall between Nos. 11 and 10. Two further ashlar stacks with some early clay pots rise from the coped gable wall to the right of No. 9.

Nos. 9 and 10 are designed as a five-bay Palladian villa with a single-bay pedimented centre that breaks forward slightly. No. 11 is positioned at the corner of Fountain Buildings and Hay Hill, with its principal front to Fountain Buildings and a former entrance front to Hay Hill.

Nos. 9 and 10 display three storeys, an attic and basement with a five-window range. On the first floor are four six-over-six sashes, two to the left with horns in shouldered and eared cyma-moulded architraves with pulvinated friezes and cornices rising from moulded stone sills on consoles. The centre features a Venetian window with four-pane fixed lights flanking a nine-over-six sash with fan-glazed head, set within a surround with four Doric pilasters in antis and an entablature forming the impost, with a cyma-moulded archivolt to the central opening and a continuous moulded sill on consoles.

The second floor has five three-over-three sashes in cyma-moulded shouldered and eared architraves, with two to the left having horns and lengthened openings. The ground floor contains to the left a 20th-century shopfront with a three-light window and glazed door with fascia and moulded cornice, to the right two six-over-six sashes in plain reveals with stone sills, and to the centre a six-panel door with flush beaded and fielded panels in a timber surround with flush beaded panels and six-pane margin lights to either side. Above is a timber fanlight, all set within a semicircular-headed opening with a triple keystone and flanked by two pennant steps.

The basement has to the left a three-over-three horned sash in a plain reveal with stone sill, a 20th-century panelled door in a plain reveal, and 20th-century area steps. To the right are two six-over-six sashes in plain reveals with a continuous stone sill. There are four doorways to the vaults. Five single dormers with three-over-three horned sashes sit in moulded timber architraves. V-jointed rustication adorns the ground floor centre, with a moulded band course over the ground floor, a moulded eaves cornice and coped parapet. The rear elevation has 20th-century windows and a two-storey canted bay off the staircase with intersecting glazing bars to the first-floor sashes.

No. 11 has four storeys and a basement, with a two-window range to Fountain Buildings. The first floor has two six-over-six horned sashes in cyma-moulded architraves with splayed jambs rising from lowered stone sills. The second floor has two three-over-three horned sashes in cyma-moulded architraves with stone sills. The third floor has two similar sashes in plain reveals with stone sills. The ground floor has an altered shopfront of 1886 by Wilson, Willcox and Wilson. Two openings to the basement have glass blocks and metal covers. A sill band to the first floor is cut through by the lowered first-floor windows, with a bracketed cornice over the second floor and a coped parapet over the third floor. A lead hopperhead and downpipe sit in the angle at the junction of Nos. 11 and 9–10.

The left side to Hay Hill has a similar three-bay composition, with a fourth bay created by a full-height 20th-century extension continued in matching style. The ground floor has a window forming the continuation of the shopfront, and a stone doorcase with a beaded surround and carved consoles to a moulded cornice.

The interior was not inspected during listing, but No. 9 contains an elegant carved Gothic fireplace with a modern gas fire inserted.

Attached to the building are wrought-iron railings and gates with shaped heads on limestone bases.

Fountain Buildings was constructed as a group of double-fronted houses by William Philips and others around this larger and earlier house. The house was marked on Thorpe's 1742 survey of Bath as Fountain House, indicating it would have been a handsomely fashionable Palladian house of considerable distinction when built. Comparisons can be made with the pair of villas designed for the west side of Queen Square by Wood the Elder. When first erected, this large house would have stood some distance outside the town; its subsequent absorption within the slightly later terrace eloquently demonstrates the northward growth of mid-18th-century Bath. No. 11 was formerly Hay Hill Dairy, and an 1888 drawing shows stall plates reading 'DAIRY PRODUCE'.