Nos. 18-30 (Consec) With Attached Railings

Thirteen terrace houses stepped downhill on the east side of Gay Street, Nos. 18–30, from 1755–1760, designed by John Wood the Younger, with 19th and 20th century alterations.

The houses are constructed in limestone ashlar to the front and rubblestone to the rear, with steep double-pitched slate mansard roofs incorporating dormers and moulded stacks rising from the right party walls. All buildings follow a double-depth plan with two storeys, attics and basements. Individual properties range from two to four windows wide. Each house features a coped parapet, stopped cornice, and moulded architraves to the upper floor windows; those on the first floor have cornices. Ground floor platbands and plinths run across the terraces. Windows are predominantly six-over-six-pane sashes, some retaining crown glass and thick glazing bars. Except at the terminal properties (Nos. 18 and 30), doorcases are positioned to the left, with moulded architraves and pediments on shaped brackets. Doors historically featured eight raised and fielded panels, and first floors formerly had sill bands.

No. 18 displays a four-window range with six-over-six-pane sashes (the second floor right window showing crown glass and thick glazing bars), two dormers, lowered sills and balconettes to the first floor, and splayed reveals with horned sashes to the first and ground floors. The right-of-centre doorcase features engaged Ionic columns on pedestals supporting an entablature with modillion cornice, with glazed upper door panels. A lead rainwater head and downpipe appear to the right.

No. 19 has a three-window range with two dormers featuring thick glazing bars, horned plate-glass sashes to the main floors, six-over-six-pane sashes to the basement with splayed reveals, lowered sills to the first floor, and a five-panel door with one glazed top panel.

No. 20 is similar to No. 19, adding balconettes to the first floor and a lead rainwater head and downpipe to the right.

No. 21 mirrors No. 19 but features all plate-glass windows and a truncated stack.

No. 22 has a two-window range with a plate-glass sash window to the dormer, six-over-six-pane sashes to the second floor, splayed reveals, lowered sills and plate-glass sashes to the first floor, a splayed reveal plate-glass sash to the ground floor, and a six-panel door glazed to the top with a blocked overlight.

No. 23 displays a two-window range with six-over-six-pane sashes paired to the dormer, splayed reveals to the first and ground floors, a first-floor sill band, an overlight replacing the upper door panels, and a lead downpipe to the right. There are no chimney pots.

No. 24 has a two-window range with six-over-six-pane sashes to the dormer and second floor (with thick glazing bars), plate-glass sashes in splayed reveals to the first floor, ground floor and basement, balconettes and lowered sills to the first floor, and a six-panel door with an overlight replacing the upper panels.

No. 25 is a three-window range with plate-glass sash windows, two dormers, splayed reveals to the first floor, ground floor and basement, lowered sills to the first floor, and a five-panel door glazed to the top.

No. 26 is a three-window range with plate-glass sash windows, two dormers (the left dormer having a two-light casement window), splayed reveals to the first floor, ground floor and basement, mid-19th-century scrolled balconettes and lowered sills to the first floor, a five-panel door glazed to the top, and a lead downpipe to the right.

No. 27 features six-over-six-pane sash windows, two dormers, a restored first-floor sill band and sills, and a six-panel door.

No. 28 is a three-window range with six-over-six-pane sashes to two dormers, the second floor and basement, splayed reveals, lowered sills and six-over-nine-pane sashes to the first and ground floors, and a seven-panel door with one glazed horizontal pane to the top.

No. 29 is a three-window range with six-over-six-pane sashes, splayed reveals to the first and ground floors and basement, and a six-panel door with a margin-paned overlight.

No. 30, at the corner of George Street, has the roof hipped to the right with a stack to the rear. It displays a three-window range with plate-glass windows, lowered sills to the first floor, splayed reveals to the ground floor, and a moulded architrave without a pediment to a seven-panel door glazed to the top with a thick lintel or narrow blocked overlight. The street name "GAY STREET" is carved into the platband. The right return to George Street is virtually symmetrical with plate-glass sash windows, a stepped-forward central bay with a wide stack above a pediment, a surviving sill band interrupted by three first-floor windows, and many blind windows.

Interior features documented in recent inspections include: No. 23 (refurbished by Bath Council in 1990) contains a hall with barley-sugar balusters and Doric newels, Regency architraving, and a Regency soffit cornice with readings in the architrave flanking the chimneybreast. No. 27 was refurbished in 1993 after extensive historical research, with a new roof, windows and shuttering. It contains a large stone central staircase with barley-sugar twisted Doric colonnettes and solid timber treads, descending to the basement where it becomes polygonal after the second floor. Original box shutters on the ground floor front have been lowered 6 inches with the window sills, and dropped 1 foot at the rear with an additional panel at top. No. 28 (inspected by Bath Council in 1987) retains most original features, though later partitions are present. It contains a grand central spiral staircase with Baroque handrails on landings and Doric colonnettes on balusters (alternate ones fluted), a lobby behind the staircase, copy Georgian rooflights, a late 18th-century fireplace to the rear (from Walcot Reclamation), early white Victorian marbled fireplaces on the first floor, and panelled walls with dado on the second.

Attached spearhead iron railings, with gates to the basement, are integral to each house.

Gay Street is named after Robert Gay, a surgeon of Hatton Garden and a landowner in the area. Building leases date from 14 December 1759 for Nos. 18 and 19; 20 July 1757 for Nos. 20–25; and 3 January 1755 for Nos. 26–30. The leases were granted a few months after the death of John Wood the Elder in May 1754. The street forms a steeply rising link between Wood's two principal urban set-pieces. The southern part of Gay Street (now comprising Nos. 31–41) was originally known as Barton Street and predated the remainder of the street by approximately twenty years.

No. 27 was completed in 1757 and was the first residence of Dr William Oliver, the renowned physician and creator of the Bath Oliver biscuit. In 1774 the building was occupied by Dr William Falconer, physician to what is now the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases. The artist Robert Woodroffe lived there from 1837 to 1848.