Warehouse And Office Premises Occupied By Harper Furnishings And Calor Gas

This building, originally a workhouse and later known as Walcot Poor House, is now occupied by Harper Furnishings and Calor Gas. It dates from the 18th century and was rebuilt in 1828, with a further transformation into Sutcliffe Industrial Schools in 1848. The facade is made of limestone ashlar, with coursed rubblestone and a slate roof featuring moulded stacks at the coped gable ends and a ridge at the front block. The rear has pantile mansard roofs.

The building has a four-unit plan, with a rear right wing added to the 1848 block and two long rear 18th-century wings. The architectural style is Tudor. The exterior is three storeys high with a four-window front. It features label moulds above three-light, three-pane windows with pointed arches. There is a crenellated parapet and a weathered cornice, along with an enclosed crenellated porch to the left of centre. This porch has a label mould and sunk spandrels over a pointed arched recess with 20th-century double doors. Above the porch is a large painted quatrefoil with moulded edges, displaying the date 1848. A plaque beneath the quatrefoil notes that the building was rebuilt in 1828 under overseers Mr. James Dunn and William Russell, with John Curry as the assistant.

The rear right wing is three storeys high with a pitched slate roof and flat stone mullions on a three-light window at each upper floor. The lower late 18th-century workhouse section has concrete tiles and two 20th-century dormers on the mansard roof, with flat stone mullions on three three-light windows at the first floor, along with 20th-century windows and doors below. The block with the entrance from Weymouth Street has a row of thirteen restored stone mullioned windows at eaves level and a 20th-century ground floor.

The interior has not been inspected. This building is an interesting example of the Tudor Gothic style, which was popular for late Georgian and early Victorian institutional buildings, particularly as a workhouse. It represents one of the philanthropic institutions in the northern approaches of Bath.