15, Abbey Church Yard

12/06/50

ABBEY CHURCH YARD (North side) No.15

GV II*

House, now with shop. c1720, altered and heightened probably early C19. Attributed to Thomas Greenway (Ison). MATERIALS: Bath limestone ashlar with a painted ground floor. PLAN: Single depth plan with central entrance and all windows on the front (south) elevation, back-to-back with No.14 Cheap Street (qv). EXTERIOR: Three storeys with cellars and full height attic, five bays wide. Paired windows on either side of a central door, flattened arches with keystones, plate glass windows, four-panelled door. First and second floors have sash windows, four/four in architrave surrounds, the central window has an arched head. Pilasters to ends and to central feature, Doric to ground floor, Ionic to first with a pediment to centre, Corinthian to second with a segmental pediment. The attic has only three windows, four/four sashes, the outer ones are placed centrally over the pairs below. Cornice band, parapet, roof not visible, ashlar end stacks with pots. INTERIOR: Of ground floor altered, not inspected above. HISTORY: A notable early C18 house in the centre of Bath, forming an interesting contrast with its westerly neighbour which displays more polite tendencies in design. This may be the house claimed to have been built by the mason Richard Jones for Mr Harford in the Abbey Churchyard in about 1730. The ground floor is probably original, but altered to form an arcaded shopfront in mid C19 (a late C18 drawing by Thomas Malton seems to show a double-bowed front). SOURCES: Walter Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bath' (2nd ed. 1980; Graham Field,Shopfront Record' (Bath City Council 1992-).

Listing NGR: ST7508764785