16-19, Catharine Place

Four terrace houses, numbers 16 to 19, were completed in 1776 by John Wood the Younger, with alterations made in the 19th century. The buildings are constructed of limestone ashlar, with double-pitched mansard roofs covered in slate, dormers, and moulded stacks rising from the coped party walls. The houses are stepped down from the right, and each has three storeys with attics and basements.

The exteriors feature coped parapets, stopped cornices, and ground floor platbands. Number 16 has a four-window range, with six/six-pane sash windows to the second floor, lowered sills to six/nine-pane sashes with trellised balconettes to the first floor, and two six/nine-pane sashes to the centre of the ground floor. A six-panel door, glazed to the top, is set within a pedimented Tuscan doorcase with engaged columns. A flat-arched carriage entrance leads to Margaret’s Chapel on the left. Number 17 has a three-window range with plate glass sash windows to the second floor, lowered sills to six/nine-pane sash windows on the first floor, and two six/six-pane sashes on the ground floor, featuring a five-panel door in a similar painted doorcase. Number 18 also has a three-window range, with plate glass sash windows without horns, scrolled balconettes to the first floor, and a similarly painted doorcase. Number 19, situated on the corner with Margaret’s Buildings, exhibits a returned parapet, cornice, and platband, as well as painted splayed reveals and sills. The window arrangement includes six/six-pane sashes to the second floor, four/four-pane sashes with lowered sills and a balcony spanning the facade to the first floor, and two/four-pane sashes to the ground floor on the left. A doorcase, previously resembling those of numbers 16 to 18, now features a shallow hood replacing the entablature and pediment over a six-panel door with radial glazing bars to the overlight. A single-storey, flat-roofed porch with pilasters and an entablature leads to a 19th-century panelled door with a blocked overlight. The left return has two 19th-century windows and a door to the right. The left return of the house has six/six-pane sashes, a tripartite window to the second floor left, Gothic glazing to a Venetian window to the first floor left, a blind Venetian window to the right, and two windows to the ground floor left.

Interiors were not inspected except for a partial inspection of number 18 by Bath Council in 1984, which revealed early 19th-century marble fireplaces on the ground floor and large double eight-panel doors. A staircase features Doric newel posts. The area suffered bombing during World War II; number 17 was burnt out and subsequently rebuilt behind the original facade.