Granville House

Granville House is a detached villa on Entry Hill Drive, dating from 1827 with 20th-century additions. It was designed by architect Edward Davis.

The building is constructed of limestone ashlar with slate roofs. The plan follows a symmetrical H-shape with a central staircase hall. The building presents two storeys on most elevations, rising to three storeys on the north-west side due to the sloping site.

Windows are generally three-light casements, many with horizontal bars and chamfered mullions. The entrance front displays three broad bays with the centre recessed. The flanking bays feature quoin pilasters that step out and corbel as chimneys above parapeted gables, with stacks carrying decorated terracotta pots supported on plain corbel brackets at first-floor level. The left-hand bay incorporates reset fragments of medieval stonework and tracery at ground-floor level. The recessed centre bay contains a three-light stone-mullioned window above the entrance, which has a four-centred arched moulded opening with a glazed door accessed by five plus one stone steps with a solid balustrade stopped to square piers with small stone lion finials. Low coped walls flank the entrance, enclosing basement areas fitted with corrugated plastic laylights.

The right return continues the string courses with two three-light casements in deep splays, blind to the right with drips to splayed stops at ground-floor level. A central corbelled external chimney with a triple stack extends the quoin pilaster and carries crenellated cresting. An elaborately carved heraldic panel occupies the centre of the first floor. The left return is similar, with two three-light windows above a 20th-century flat-roofed extension, and three-light windows to the lower-ground level. A wide central stack in three shafts, raised and carrying decorative pots, dominates this side. A second heraldic panel, built into the lower wall of the extension, matches the one on the opposite side. Additional Gothic fragments are reused in this location.

The garden front features a tall central recess under a moulded flat four-centred arch, flanked by low gabled wings. The top floor contains three three-light windows in the outer bays with drips to splayed stops, positioned above deep oriels with 1:3:1-light windows featuring transoms and flat four-centred heads. The oriels have stepped stone roofs with heavy bracketed eaves cornices and flat cantilevered bases on plain triangular brackets. Three-light windows serve the lower-ground floor. The recessed centre originally contained no opening but now has a low-level door and an inserted door to the main level, approached by a concrete stair. String courses continue from the other fronts, gables are simply coped, and a pierced balustrade spans the centre bay. A 20th-century extension returns to the right.

The interior, inspected by Bath Council in 1979, contains Tudor-style details. The ground floor features Georgian cornices, Tudor-style recesses, and an original marble fireplace.

The house is of particular historical interest for its reuse of carved fragments, which enliven an otherwise austere Baronial Gothic composition. This reuse reflects Romantic motivations, appealing to the historical imagination through aged materials. The heraldic panels originated from the Granville monument on Lansdown; Davis oversaw that monument's restoration and recycled the panels into this house. Davis himself lived here with his family from 1835 to 1841.

The building represents an extraordinary Mannerist version of Tudor design with minimal external alteration, characteristic of the free approach to villa design developed in the area. Davis presented designs for seventeen houses here at the 1828 Royal Academy, though only five were constructed. This speculative development, funded by lawyer Richard Else, was laid out off the old Warminster Road. Stylistically advanced, these villas form an interesting counterpart to Goodridge's contemporary work on Bathwick Hill.