Nos. 93-103 (Consec) Including No 93A And Attached Forecourt And Railings

This is a symmetrical terrace of eleven houses built in 1808-9 by John Pinch the Elder. Originally known as New Sydney Place, it was among the most prestigious of all late Georgian developments in Bath. The terrace forms a key part of one of the most impressive neoclassical urban set-pieces in Britain, completing Thomas Baldwin's design for the Sydney Place development after financial delays in the 1790s. Queen Charlotte stayed at number 93 in 1817, and King William IV, when Duke of Clarence, stayed at number 103 in the same year, as recorded by bronze plaques.

Architectural Design

The terrace presents a palace-fronted composition of thirty-three bays arranged in a pattern of three-twelve-three-twelve-three. The central house, number 98, and the end houses, numbers 93 and 103, are stepped forward and have separate entablatures beneath pediments. The terrace steps gracefully downhill from number 93 to the right, with each three-bay house set slightly lower than its northern neighbour, creating an elegantly descending rhythm that is anchored to the cylindrical corner treatment of number 103.

Materials and Construction

The front elevation is built of limestone ashlar, whilst the rear is constructed of rough ashlar and coursed rubblestone. The roofs are slate with moulded stacks on the party walls, most retaining original hand-thrown chimney pots. The quality of the ashlar fronts was particularly admired, with the courses of masonry raised sequentially to create as harmonious and even a tone as possible.

Exterior Details

Each house stands three storeys tall with attics and basements. The ground floor features arched door openings positioned to the left of a pair of ground-floor arched windows. The doors are fielded eight-panel designs with margin lights, set beneath fanlights. The arched windows contain nine-over-six pane sashes, with a string course at impost level. Front areas are protected by railings to the street, with lamp bracket overthrows at most entrances.

The first floors have three windows fitted with six-over-six pane sashes and separate cast iron balconies sporting trellis screens in front of each window. The end and centre houses (numbers 93, 98, and 103) have continuous first-floor balconies and aedicular surrounds to their central first-floor windows. A band of Vitruvian scroll ornament runs at second-floor level.

The second floors have three six-over-six pane sashes below a projecting cornice, whilst the attics contain three three-over-three pane sash windows each. The attics of the end and centre houses terminate with pediments; the central pediment bears the eroded carved crest of the Vane family within the tympanum.

Terminal Houses

The entrance to the terminal houses is located in the returns. Number 103 has a projecting doorcase with paired fluted Doric columns supporting an entablature enriched with paired garlands and metopes decorated with lozenges and paterae. This is set against a full-height corner drum with blind arched recesses flanking the doorcase. A cast iron trellis screen balcony sits at first-floor level over the doorcase. The two-bay end of the terrace front links to a similar corner drum at the right-hand angle.

Number 93 to the left features a glazed first-floor conservatory over the doorcase with wide segmental fanlights over tripartite six-over-six pane sash windows to three sides. This conservatory was already in existence by 1818 but was not shown on Pinch's original design. It is set between segmental full-height bow windows with several painted blind windows.

Interior Features

Although not fully inspected, the interiors are noted as having panelled shutters throughout.

Number 93: A 1946 photograph in the National Monuments Record shows a fine cantilevered stone stair with scrolled wrought iron railings. The Bath Preservation Trust Interiors Survey of the lower ground floor flat reports a liver-coloured marble chimneypiece with columns, a reeded architrave, and an acanthus-decorated cornice in the drawing room, with similar features in the bedroom. The basement has been stripped out. The ground-floor flat has double mahogany doors dividing the main rooms, reeded architraves to doors and windows, and neoclassical chimneypieces.

Number 94: A 1946 photograph shows a niche with a reeded surround alongside the entrance passage, containing a cast iron stove with gadrooned decoration.

Number 95: The Bath Preservation Trust Interiors Survey reports a four-flight cantilevered stone staircase with plain balusters carrying a mahogany hand-rail and wrought iron panels to the landings. The entrance has a stove alcove within a reeded surround, a plaster cornice with rosette and guttae motif, and an inner fanlight above the entrance to the lobby. The dining room at the ground-floor front has a Gothic cornice and ceiling rose, a veined marble chimneypiece with a grape motif to the corners, and moulded architraves with paterae. The drawing room at the ground-floor rear has recessed alcoves flanking a white marble chimneypiece with reeding and corner rosettes, and similar architraves. The first-floor front drawing room has eight-panel doors (double to the rear room), a floral cornice, and matching architraves to doors and windows with lion masks. The upper floors have plainer rooms. The basement retains early kitchen fittings including an oven and roasting hooks.

Number 97: This was sub-divided into five flats in 1983.

Number 99: The Bath Preservation Trust Interiors Survey (1991) reports a cantilevered stone stair. The entrance hall has a stove alcove set within a reeded surround and an arch at the foot of the stairs with a meander pattern to the soffit. The ground-floor front drawing room has a veined marble chimneypiece with grape decoration, a reeded cornice and ceiling rose, and a reeded architrave to the door. There are reeded architraves to sliding double doors between the first-floor rooms, and the rear recess is framed by a screen with Ionic columns.

Number 100: The Bath Preservation Trust Interiors Survey (1991-98) notes two rooms per floor on the lower levels with an extension to the rear on the ground floor. Features include a cantilevered stone staircase with wrought iron lyre decoration to each floor and a scrolled mahogany hand-rail. The entrance has a fanlight over the inner door, a niche for a stove with a reeded surround, an arch to the ceiling, and an acanthus leaf cornice. The dining room at the ground-floor front has a reeded marble chimneypiece, reeded architraves to doors and windows, and a large folding door to the rear room with a reeded architrave with lion mask roundels to the corners. The basement contains a highly unusual survival: a marble-lined bath approximately 81 inches long by 29 inches wide and 46 inches deep, with steps beneath the floor of the rear room and a hinged cover over.

Number 101: The Bath Preservation Trust Interiors Survey (1993) reports a five-flight cantilevered stone stair with plain railings and a mahogany hand-rail. The entrance hall has an interior fanlight to the inner door, a stove alcove with a reeded surround, and an acanthus leaf cornice. The dining room at the ground-floor front has a marble chimneypiece enriched with vine reliefs, a quatrefoil-decorated cornice, and reeded architraves to doors and windows with foliate reliefs to the corners. The room at the ground-floor rear is similarly decorated. The drawing room at the first-floor front has a reeded marble chimneypiece, a reeded ceiling band and foliate rose, reeded architraves with lion masks to the corners, and sliding panelled doors to the room at the rear with similar decoration. Further features exist on the upper floors. The basement kitchen retains a range bearing the name of local manufacturers, Stothert and Walker.

Numbers 99-101 were used as an art school until 1998.

Forecourt and Railings

The terrace is fronted by wrought iron railings with vase bases, gates to the basements, and fine trellised overthrows with a complete set of lamp brackets.

Historical Context

A building lease for number 95, dated 30 September 1808, ran for 96 years between the Earl of Darlington and John Jacobs, builder and plasterer of Walcot. It stated that the adjoining plot to the east had been let to Walter Harris, builder and mason, and that to the west to William Seward and William Waters, builders and carpenters.

This terrace is regarded as John Pinch's finest creation. It marks the first appearance of his distinctive ramped horizontal detailing, and the inclusion of very tall windows and an architecturally treated attic floor is also noteworthy.