3 And 4, Macaulay Buildings

A pair of semi-detached villas, built between 1819 and 1830, with later alterations in the 19th century. The buildings are constructed of limestone ashlar with slate roofs. The design features a broad frontage with double segmental bows, a wide single-span roof incorporating a cross wing, and a rear full storey which is deeper than the front, reflecting the sloping site.

Each villa is two storeys with an attic and basement, and has two windows to the front, all being plain sash windows with stopped, splayed surrounds. The original panelled front doors are centred and include shallow transom lights and cornice hoods on brackets. The exterior has a broad mid platband, lintel, frieze, cornice, blocking course, and parapet, with the cornice returning approximately 450mm to the gable ends. There are two ashlar stacks at each end. The right return is plain with a small twelve-pane window to the lower ground floor, while the left return is also plain, containing a large, flat-roofed garage extension. The rear elevation is complex; No. 3 has two sashes to the top floor, one breaking through the eaves line as a small dormer above a staggered plain sash. It also has a two-storey extension with large 20th-century three-light windows. No. 4 features various plain sashes and a mid-19th-century two-storey canted bay with a plain sash and entablature.

Interior details were recorded by the Bath Preservation Trust in 1990. Number 3’s drawing room at the rear has three casement windows, with three coloured glass diamond-paned windows above. Number 4 has a fine blue and red engraved glass window in the hall.

These villas are part of a group of three pairs of similar but not identical houses, constructed to take advantage of the views to the front and rear. They were developed by Thomas Macaulay Cruttwell, a solicitor, on land formerly called "The Nedges". He purchased the land in 1819, and the first house was completed in 1825, with the remainder finished in 1830.