7-12, NORTH PARADE

Houses, now mixed use. Built in 1740 by John Wood the Elder, with various 19th-century alterations. Constructed of limestone ashlar with Welsh slate roofs; the ground floor of Number 7 is rendered and painted.

The houses are of double depth plan with projecting stair wings. The terrace comprises three storeys, attics and basements, forming a palace-fronted composition of seven houses (including 12a) with twenty-five bays in total, arranged three:seven:five:seven:three. The end sections and centrepiece are set slightly forward, with the centrepiece (Number 10) featuring an overall eaves pediment. A platband marks the first floor level.

The ground floors have wrought iron area railings (originally stone balustrades). Ground floor sash windows are set in plain architraves, either six-over-six panes of late 18th-century type or plain plate glass. Basement windows follow the same pattern except for Numbers 7 and 8, which have been extensively altered, and Number 12, which retains two original six-over-six sashes.

First floor windows are sashes with dropped sills and cornice heads. The doors are generally six-panel, though those of Numbers 8 and 9 are partly glazed. Most doorways have pedimented heads on console brackets. The doorway of Number 10 is larger, with Ionic pilasters and a pediment rising above the platband. The doorways of Numbers 12 and 12a are paired, with doors having arched heads that break the pediment and radiating fanlights, apparently a late 18th-century alteration. The arrangement for Numbers 7 and 8 appears to have been different, with the door of Number 7 originally in the third bay of the end projection, now converted to a window.

Number 7 has a projecting shopfront, an early 19th-century alteration, with a single bay to each elevation and canted corner. It features two plate glass windows with decorative heads. This projection continues into a two-storey porch on Pierrepont Street, with an eight-panel door and radiating fanlight of Adam type. Number 7 presents a four-bay elevation to Pierrepont Street, with the left-hand three bays projecting forward as the end piece for the Pierrepont Street terrace. These windows have dropped sills and 19th-century plate glass sashes except for the top left-hand corner, which has a six-over-six sash. There is a cornice and two flat-topped dormers.

The second floor has sashes in plain architraves, with those for Number 7 and Numbers 9-11 having dropped sills. Numbers 8-10 have restored sashes of late 18th-century type; others have late 19th-century plate glass sashes. The terrace has a dentil cornice, parapet, and mansard roof with flat-topped dormers of varying dates and sizes, some double. Ashlar chimney stacks carry pots.

One peculiar feature of these buildings is the rounded ends of half-landings on the staircases, designed to enable chairmen to carry people directly up to their rooms on coming from the Baths. These apsidal extensions, visible at the rear of the terrace, are frequently covered with semi-domes of lead.

Number 8 was partly inspected by Bath City Council in 1980. The ground floor entrance hall retains its original moulded timber cornice and two-panel high panelling with dado rail to walls, with pilasters either side of the archway in the spine wall. Both front rooms are panelled as the hall. There is a fine top-lit original mahogany staircase in the south-west corner with symmetrically ramped panelled Baroque dado and spirally fluted Doric colonnette-on-vase banisters. On the first floor, the two front rooms have been combined and retain fine panelling as on the ground floor. Two severe early 19th-century white marble fireplaces stand at either end, both with classical heads carved on central keystones.

Number 9 was partly inspected by Bath City Council in 1980. The ground floor has Regency cornices to front and back rooms and a fine original staircase with semi-circular half-landing. Both front rooms are panelled. The original mahogany staircase is top-lit and located in the south-west corner, with symmetrically ramped panelled Baroque dado and spirally fluted Doric colonnette-on-vase banisters. The first floor has two combined front rooms with fine panelling and two severe early 19th-century white marble fireplaces at either end, both with classical heads carved on central keystones.

Number 10 was partly inspected by Bath City Council on several occasions between 1980 and 1995. In the basement, the hall is centrally positioned opposite the staircase, with a semi-circular arch with keystone to the staircase hall. The front west room has arched window reveals, remains of an original architrave fireplace, and a four-panel door with architrave. The front east room, formerly the old kitchen, has two fireplaces, one with a Tudor-style arch. A semi-circular arch leads to the back room east, which resembles the front room east. The back extension east has a fireplace similar to the back extension west but without its arch. The back room west has a four-panel door with cyma reversa single fascia architrave and a cyma-moulded original stone architrave fireplace with rounded corners to the opening.

On the ground floor, the hall has a substantial original cornice and a large arch on pillars in the spine wall. The front room west has a Victorian cornice and early Victorian console fireplace. The front and back room east, now combined, have a Victorian fireplace with overmantel. The back room west has a Victorian cornice, a Georgian door with wide double cyma architrave to the original doorway to the front room (now blocked), a semi-circular arch to the right of the original fireplace position, and an original window in the south wall with single fascia cyma architrave. The rear extension has an original south window and torus skirting; the rear extension south-east has single fascia cyma architrave.

The first floor has a fine central timber staircase with well and semi-circular bow to the large half-landing, Doric colonnette-on-vase banisters, and decorative tread ends. The front north-east room has an early Victorian cornice, two windows with original shutters, and Victorian skirting. The centre front room has one window with original shutters. The north-west front room has an early Victorian cornice and two windows. The south-east room has an early 19th-century cornice, a fireplace with original bold moulded stone architrave, a three-panel cupboard door to the left, two six-panel ovolo corner doors with original large double cyma reversa architrave, and a back sash window with large ovolo shutters. The back south-east wing has cyma recta, cavetto and bead cornice, and a D-arched stone fireplace surround with cymas to the outer vertical edges. Number 10 also contains painted and stencilled wooden panelling discovered on the first floor at the rear of the house, in a small room with plain fireplace and panelling—a rare survival.

On the second floor, the front landing has two-panel high ovolo panelling with dado rail. The front north-east room has an early Victorian cornice, architrave fireplace, and two windows. The centre room has a cornice as above and one window with original box shutters. The south-west back room has an early Victorian cornice, two windows, and original six-panel ovolo doors with wide cyma reversa architraves. The south-east back room matches the south-west room. The front north-west room has two windows and an original fireplace with flat D-arch and later architrave.

On the third floor, the front east room has a fireplace with cyma-moulded stone surround. The front west room is similar, with four-panel unmoulded doors. There are four back attics, each with a dormer.

William Wordsworth stayed in Number 9 in 1841. The Duke of York stayed in Number 10 in 1761, and the Duke of Northumberland in 1771. Oliver Goldsmith stayed in Number 11 in 1771, as did Edmund Burke in 1797, as commemorated by plaques.

This terrace forms part of John Wood's uncompleted scheme for the Abbey Orchard, 1740-1748. A print of circa 1787, "A View of the Parade at Bath", shows an elegant double bow-fronted shop (Number 7) facing North Parade. A print of 1828 shows a shopfront similar to the existing one, with an arched doorway.