Nos. 1-30, ROYAL CRESCENT

The Royal Crescent comprises thirty houses forming a concave semi-elliptical crescent, built between 1767 and 1775 by John Wood the Younger. It represents the most famous architectural set-piece in Georgian town architecture and a milestone in town planning, being the first proper crescent of terraced houses and the first such row left open to look beyond the city. It initially enjoyed a rural southerly prospect towards the River Avon and exemplifies the ideal of rus in urbe (countryside in the city).

John Wood the Younger leased the former pastureland site in December 1766 from Sir Benet Garrard, and the first stone was laid in mid-May 1767. The first house, Number 1, was completed in 1769 as the model for the rest; individual builders were obliged to conform to its façade design. Most houses were finished by 1774, with all occupied by September 1778. Several suffered badly from incendiary bombs in April 1942, which gutted three interiors.

Materials and construction

The crescent is built of even and finely cut limestone ashlar with double pitched slate mansard roofs (originally stone-tiled) and moulded stacks to coped party walls. The houses have double-depth plans slightly broadening to the rear, with various projecting additions.

Exterior

The crescent measures approximately 500 feet (152 metres) long and nearly 50 feet (15 metres) tall. Its façade is dominated by a procession of 114 engaged giant Ionic columns, each some 20 feet (6 metres) tall. The columns are placed singly between bays except at the centremost bay, which is flanked with pairs, and at the corners of the end houses. The only emphasis to the centre is an arched opening at first-floor level in Number 16 and side windows to the centrally placed door.

All houses comprise three storeys with attics and basements. Most have three-window fronts, though Numbers 14 to 17 at the centre have four-window fronts. A continuous returned balustraded parapet runs along the top, with a modillion cornice and frieze supported by the giant order of 114 Roman Ionic engaged columns rising from the plain ground-floor plinth with platband. The door and window openings are unadorned rectangles, with mainly six over six-pane sash windows. Many have been restored in recent years, though some retain Victorian plate glass intrusions. Some windows have balconettes and blind boxes. Dormer windows to the attics are generally three per front.

The façade demonstrates considerable architectural subtlety, with a slight alteration in curvature visible in the roof-line of Number 7 (begun in 1767). The uniform design masks significant internal variety.

Individual houses

Number 1, now a museum, has a symmetrical five-window south-facing front. The return has paired columns at the quoins and a wider bay to centre where steps lead up to a pedimented Doric doorcase over a set-back six-panel door with three-pane overlight. The east-facing rear towards Brock Street has three blind windows to both upper floors articulated by Ionic pilasters instead of columns. The house has been attached at ground floor to Number 1A Royal Crescent. The chimney stack above is enriched with a swag-decorated panel. This is the only house in the Crescent to have had its original sill levels reinstated (in 1969). A limestone plaque commemorates Bernard Cayzer (1914-1981), whose endowment made possible the museum's opening.

Number 2 has fine balconettes to the second floor, nine over nine-pane sash windows to first and ground floors, six over six to second floor and basement, and 20th-century double doors with overlight. Now divided into five flats, it was where William Wilberforce stayed in 1798. The house was badly damaged during the 1942 Blitz.

Number 3 has horned plate glass sash windows except to the basement, which retains six over six sashes, 20th-century balconettes to the second floor, and an early 19th-century six-panel door with reeded panels and lintel and plain overlight. Now divided into flats (in 1971).

Number 4 has fine early 19th-century balconettes and sunblind boxes to the second floor, six over nine-pane sash windows to first floor, and six over six windows to other floors. The door is similar to Number 3 with three-pane overlight. It was divided into flats in 1957.

Number 5 has horned plate glass sash windows except to the basement, which retains six over six sash, 19th-century double doors, and a bronze plaque to Christopher Anstey, opinion maker and author of "The New Bath Guide" (1770-1805). It has been sub-divided internally.

Number 6 has six over nine-pane sash windows to first floor, six over six sashes to other floors, and 19th-century double four-panel doors with plain overlight.

Number 7 is similar to Number 6 with circular central panels to doors and three-pane overlight. The upper part of the front shows re-alignment necessitated during original building.

Number 8 has horned plate glass sash windows with louvred shutters, similar doors to Numbers 6 and 7 with ornamented central panels and plain overlight. Sub-divided in 1953, it was re-united in 2000.

Number 9 has balconettes to second floor, nine over nine-pane sash windows to first and ground floors, six over six sashes to other floors, and late 19th-century bolection moulded double three-panel doors. The overlight has fine lead ornaments: a patera to the crossing of diagonals through an oval pane and curved wheat-ear swags to corners.

Number 10 has horned plate glass sash windows except to basement, early 19th-century three-panel double doors with roundels in blocks to corners of reeded lower panels, and a leaded overlight possibly of the 20th century. Now divided into four flats, it has a bronze plaque to Frederic Harrison (1831-1923).

Number 11 has horned plate glass sash windows with sunblind boxes and 19th-century two-panel double doors with circular moulding around brass door knobs under plain overlight with curved upper corners. A bronze plaque records the residence of Thomas Lindley, and that the elopement of his daughter Elizabeth with Richard Brinsley Sheridan took place from here in March 1772. It has been divided into four flats since 1948.

Number 12 has plate glass sash windows without horns except to basement which retains six over six sash, and plain overlight to six-panel door. Now divided into four flats.

Number 13, together with Number 14, is subdivided into fourteen flats. It has 20th-century windows, six over nine-pane sashes to first floor, six over six sashes to other floors, and six-panel door with plain overlight. To the rear is a temple-fronted coach house with two pairs of Ionic columns set in antis, carrying an entablature and pediment, with single bay continuations either side. Also to the rear is a small Palladian garden pavilion by Wood the Younger known as The Villa.

Number 14 has six over nine-panes to first floor, six over six sashes to other upper floors, horned plate glass sashes to basement, and 19th-century double doors with circular panels and brass knobs to centre. Combined with Number 13 and sub-divided, it has an Ionic temple-fronted Pavilion to the rear.

Number 15, part of the Royal Crescent Hotel, has six over nine-pane sash windows to first floor, six over six sashes to others, and similar double doors to Number 14 with margin panes and six hexagonal panes to overlight. Connecting doors with Number 16 were authorised in 1955; hotel use was permitted in 1971. To the rear is a Neo-Georgian pavilion by William Bertram, 1983-86, known as 'The Dower House' (Civic Trust award 1986).

Number 16, at the centre and now the Royal Crescent Hotel, has six over nine-pane sash windows to first floor, six over six sashes to others, and paired columns flanking the bay at the centre of the crescent, which has a nine over nine-pane semicircular arched first-floor window with radial glazing bars.

Number 17 has sash windows without horns, nine over nine-panes to first and ground floors, six over six sashes to others, six-panel door with plain overlight, and a bronze plaque to Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897). Now divided into five flats since 1948, following severe 1942 bomb damage. The coach house to rear is probably early 19th century, with three bays, doorways to each end with arched fanlights and moulded hoods, continuous imposts across outer bays, windows within moulded frames with six over six sash windows over each door, parapet cornice carried on heavy consoles, and continuous parapet with openwork balustrade.

Number 18 has horns to windows, six over nine-pane sashes to first floor, six over six sashes to others, and late 19th-century bolection moulded four-panel door with moulded lintel and plain overlight. Now divided into seven flats since 1952. To the rear, the screen wall of the coach house facing the garden with its Georgian Gothick central door and flanking windows was restored in 1993.

Number 19 has recent six over six sashes to each floor apart from the first, which has six over nine sashes, and early 19th-century six-panel door with inverted corners to panels and plain overlight. Now divided into four flats. The former coach house to rear has an ashlar wall with cornice and parapet, arched door to centre, and blind arched windows either side.

Number 20 has plate glass windows without horns, six over six-pane sashes to basement, six-panel door in coved architrave, and plain overlight. Now divided into three flats.

Number 21 has six over nine-pane sashes to first floor, six over six sashes to other floors, and six-panel door under overlight of semicircular panes enclosing three diagonal squares with concave sides.

Number 22 has six over nine-pane sashes to first floor, six over six sashes to other floors, and eight-panel door under reeded lintel and overlight with large oval pane, diagonals and ornamented curved divisions at corners. It appears to be combined with Number 23 internally.

Number 23 has six over six-pane sash windows without horns to second floor and basement, plate glass sashes to the rest, and mid-19th-century four-panel bolection moulded door with semicircular arches to upper panels and key pattern lintel. Now divided into twelve units since 1971.

Number 24 has six over six sashes to second floor and basement, nine over nine sashes to first, nine over twelve to ground floor, and six-panel door with reeded lintel and three-pane overlight. Now divided into four flats since 1969.

Number 25 has plate glass windows to second floor, six over nine sashes to first, six over six to ground and basement, and key pattern lintel over double three-panel doors with circular panels and cast iron knockers to centre and five elongated hexagonal panes to overlight.

Number 26 has horned plate glass sash windows but six over six-panes to basement, six-panel door with plain overlight and roll-edge lintel, and a Sun Fire Insurance Company plaque. Now divided into five flats.

Number 27 has plate glass sash windows without horns (six over six-panes to basement), fine balconettes to second floor, and six-panel door with three-panel overlight.

Number 28 has two over two-pane sash windows to second floor, plate glass sashes to first and ground floor, six over six-pane sashes to basement, six-panel door with three-pane overlight, and cast iron wreath knocker.

Number 29 has horned plate glass sash windows to each floor, those to first floor with lozenge panels on sunblind boxes to upper floors, painted sills, and six-panel door with bolection moulded upper panels and reeded lower panels. Now divided into five flats since 1960.

Number 30, the left terminal, has six over six-pane sashes to each floor apart from the first which has horned plate glass sash windows, four bays to crescent (east) side, and five to south-facing return with entrance via steps up to six-panel and overlight in pedimented Tuscan doorcase. Now divided into flats since 1960.

Interiors

Although many houses have undergone internal alterations and numerous have been converted into flats, many features of note remain. Most have central top-lit cantilevered stone stairs with wrought iron balustrades and mahogany handrails. Chimney pieces in Numbers 7 and 25 are illustrated in Ison.

Number 3 was inspected by Bath City Council in 1971. The ground floor outer entrance hall has a bracketed and modillioned cornice with eggs and darts, semi-circular arch single-glazed above architrave/transome, and glazed doors with single panes of glass with semi-circular tops and bottoms. The inner entrance hall has black marbled stone Doric three-quarter columns on either side of arch and timber staircase with open strings with S tread ends, three turned banisters per tread, veneered handrail wreathed at bottom with open curtail bottom step. The front room has modillion cornice with rosettes in soffit between modillions, marble chimneypiece with carved pilasters and frieze fitted in 1964, and ceiling rose with a sun flower. The back room has cornice as front room, 1.2 metre diameter rococo central rose with central sun and radiating double-curved leaves and tendrils, glazed double doors with Georgian panes to back garden, deep skirting and dado rail, French-style rococo 1.2 by 1.5 metre white marble chimneypiece, and semi-circular-headed half-cupboarded alcoves. The first floor front room has ceiling rose as in room below plus ring of honeysuckle and acanthus leaves, cornice as outer ground floor hall, raised panel doors, and chimneypiece in situ of ornate carved timber with carved tendrils on architrave, S-curved pulvinated frieze and supporting carved consoles at the base on either side. The first floor back room has elliptical arch to front room, cornice as front room, central rose as front room but coarser, plaster pilasters with corbels supporting flat soffit of wall between room and bay window, and white marble chimneypiece with slender fluted and beaded half columns with waterleaf capitals and panelled frieze with carved central panel. The second floor front room has plain ovolo/cavetto cornice and six-panel doors. The second floor back room has been subdivided and has plain shelf and architrave fireplace.

Number 4 was inspected by Bath City Council in 1981. The basement front room is subdivided with two plain architrave fireplace surrounds; the back room is the former kitchen. The ground floor front hall has original cornice with brackets and lozenges between, pair of rococo gates, diamond stone paving, pair of two-panel inner Regency doors with delicate Georgian fanlight over (a lift behind one of the doors), inner arch with scrollwork to soffit and palmette frieze to imposts, and high quality wreath to foot of staircase balustrade. The first floor front room is subdivided. The north section has Regency cornice with large O's and reeding in the soffit, smaller double doors to back room, white marble fireplace with fluted pilasters and roundels and fluted frieze, and Edwardian dado. The back room has cornice and fireplace as front room, six-panel door with reeded architrave, and original plaster rose. The staircase has inlaid handrail, carved tread ends, three Doric colonnettes on baluster banisters per tread, and Edwardian dado. The second floor back extension has reeded cornice and reeded Regency fireplace. The back room has original moulded ovolo and cavetto cornice, wide window with splayed box shutters, and reeded door architrave with blocks with diagonal leaves. The front south section has original architrave fireplace, cornice as back room, and six-panel door with ovolo architrave. The north front has plain Regency fireplace. The top floor rear extension has small Regency fireplace with roundels and reeding. The back room north has Regency cornice and Regency fireplace with roundels and panelled ovolo door. The back room south has no cornice and four-panel unmoulded original door. The front room north has Regency fireplace with roundels and grate with panelled cast iron shutter-like doors.

Number 5 was inspected by Bath City Council 1975-1986. The ground floor entrance hall has very fine fanlight with rococo plasterwork below it, bracketed cornice, and double two-panel doors with upper panels glazed, with side panels beneath semi-circular fanlight with radiating ironwork. The front room has two windows, dado rail, panelled shutters, fine white and brown marble fireplace with panelled pilasters with leaf capitals with shallow projecting cornice over, and fine decorated ceiling over whole area with recess with elliptical arch on moulded brackets with panelled pilasters as in hall. The back room has cornice with leaf and small corona and decorated soffit, and heavy fireplace with bolection moulded black marble fireplace. The annexe kitchen has deep coved ceiling with delicate plaster centrepiece and frieze and Doric arch to small vaulted side room. The main staircase has open treads with two banisters per tread and original cornice with brackets alternating with lozenges. The landing has Georgian linen cupboard with one panel doors and mahogany sliding clothes trays with moulded dado over drawers with knobs. The first floor front room has three windows with panelled shutters on architraves, six-panel door, doors to double-width opening to back room removed, white marble Edwardian fireplace, and highly patterned ceiling plaster extending over the whole ceiling area with central rose with radiating anthemion set in an octagon, surrounded by interlocking elliptical chains of husks framing very delicate scrollwork which recurs in the corners of a square outer frame, beyond which are narrow panels of anthemion linked by shallow garlands of husks, the whole framed by an enriched cornice crowning a richly patterned frieze (see photograph in Ison's The Georgian Buildings of Bath, plate 129 and description on page 193). The first floor back room has fireplace matching front room and ceiling decoration similar to front room. The annexe has fine ceiling with deep cove, nice ceiling decoration and central rose. The second floor front room west has 18th-century cornice with small lotus leaves and frieze with very delicate rinceau scrolled tendrils with leaf enrichment, six panel ovolo doors with astragals, and modern Adamesque fireplace. The front room east has original cornice as above and marble architrave fireplace with grey/white shelf and beaded cavetto and orange/grey fascia. The back room has cornice with enriched upper cyma reversa, deep cavetto and enriched astragal and soffit band with inner astragal and small husks at the corners, 18th-century marble fireplace with white statuary shelf and bed moulds, panelled pilasters and moulded architrave and Sienna frieze and side panels, and plaster sprays of oak leaves and acorns between rear windows. The landing corridor has segmental arches to stair well springing from original moulded imposts. The third floor front room west has cavetto cornice and possibly original marble fireplace with black mantel shelf, architrave with black cavetto and red fascia and inner astragal, and cavetto and torus skirting. The back room west has good 18th-century marble architrave fireplace with square-edged white marble shelf and sides and Sienna fascia and white inner astragal. The back room east has four panel unmoulded door with cyma reversa architrave.

Number 6: See photograph of entrance hall and staircase in Ison, plate 121b.

Number 7 was inspected by Bath City Council in 1992. Consent was given for the present fanlight over front door in 1987. The hall has original bracket cornice, dado, original staircase with two Doric colonnettes on vase banisters per tread, arch between front and back halls with soffit enriched with scrollwork supported on Doric pilasters, and floor of square Bath stone flags with slate diamonds. The ground floor front room has cornice with eggs and darts, frieze with rococo swags, original un-panelled dado, fine rococo fireplace with enriched cornice, fluted frieze with central panel with swag and two drops, egg and dart architrave, modern marble slips and egg-timer 18th-century iron hob grate, and original six panel ovolo door with unmoulded astragals. The back room has three windows, the central one arched with Gothick interlacing tracery in head, sheets of pewter applied to the walls by Jeremy Fry in recent times, dado with ovolo panels, and fireplace with Ionic columns and frieze with swags. There are signs of a semi-circular arched recess in middle of centre wall. The first floor front room has tall Greek Revival double six panel interconnecting doors and modern dado. A photograph in Ison (plate 135a) shows a very fine late 18th-century white statuary marble fireplace which presumably stood in this room. The first floor back room has two windows and original cove cornice with leaf enrichment.

Number 8 was inspected by Bath City Council 1980. The basement hall has stone flagged floor and staircase with Doric colonnette banisters. The front room is subdivided with six panel unmoulded door. The ground floor entrance hall is subdivided; the staircase is Victorian and a lift has been inserted. There is an elaborate screen in central archway with pair of doors with round headed glass panes, glass panes either side and fanlight over with panes of oval flash and plain glass. The ground floor front room has enriched modillion cornice, two windows with box shutters, four panel Victorian door, and original marble fireplace with pair of porphyry and white Ionic columns supporting urns with central plaque decorated with scrollwork in frieze. The subdivided back room has early Victorian cornice, two windows with Victorian box shutters, four panel Victorian door, and high early Victorian skirting. The first floor front room (sub-divided) has enriched modillion cornice, windows with original box shutters and architraves with beaded cyma reversa mouldings and two fascias, and Victorian white marble fireplace with arch, panelled surrounds, carved keystone and key-pattern frieze. The first floor back room (sub-divided) has Victorian cornice with enriched soffit, simple Victorian white marble console fireplace, Victorian box shutters and four-panel door.

Number 9 was part-inspected by Bath City Council in 1975. The basement front room (subdivided) has in the left hand room original moulded cornice, fireplace with timber surround (blocked), four panel door, and cupboards with pair of single panel doors under windows. The back room is subdivided: the left hand room has cornice as above and cupboard in former fireplace; the right hand room has a dresser.

Number 10 was inspected by Bath City Council in 1973 and 1981. It is thought to have been a single house until divided into flats circa 1923. The basement back room (former kitchen) has old fireplace with segmental arch and mantelpiece on consoles and smaller fireplace with range. The back extension under paved bridge to back garden has Georgian dresser with shelves which get wider as they rise, each supported on two Doric colonnettes, four drawers and four two-panel cupboard doors. The ground floor front room has original enriched modillion cornice, modern timber fireplace, elliptical arch to sideboard recess in spine wall with four garlands on soffit on either side of central roundel, and original panelled dado. A photograph on the Council file shows the original fireplace with fluted frieze. The back room has modern sleeping balcony and Greek Revival cornice with leaf and scrollwork soffit. The first floor front room has enriched modillion cornice, six panel door, and semi-circular-headed niches with moulded archivolts either side of modern fireplace. The back room has cornice as front room. The second floor two front rooms have original moulded cornice and white marble fireplace with reeded architrave with florets on corner blocks and central panel with incised Regency style rectangle with concave corners. The back room has moulded cornice.

Number 12: No inspection notes. See photograph of very fine decorative plaster ceiling in first floor front room in Ison, plate 131a.

Number 13 was inspected by Bath City Council in 1984. The ground floor entrance hall has good original cornice with alternating brackets and rosettes, plaster rope moulded panels to walls, stone flagged floor with black diamonds, and Adamesque tracery in elliptical fanlight in central arch. The staircase hall has enriched modillion cornice. No staircase survives but remains of original rope mouldings to compartment are evident. The front room has very fine coved Rococo ceiling with ornament in corners of cove, very fine rococo fireplace with supporting consoles either side and delicate scrollwork in frieze, cornice that looks as if it might be a modern replacement, panelled dado, and wall panels that look as if they might be later. The first floors of Numbers 13 and 14 have been converted into a single flat. The first floor back room is subdivided and has fine Adamesque plaster ceiling, doorcases with enriched architraves, garlands in friezes, enriched consoles and cornices and mahogany doors (one at least of which looks original), original enriched dado and skirting, and plain Regency fireplace with roundels, segmental architrave with flat central panel and reeded shelf.

Number 14 was inspected by Bath City Council in 1984 and 1995. The ground floor entrance hall is subdivided; it was of two bays originally. The staircase hall in middle of house has rope moulded plaster panels, simple torus skirting, and unusual original wrought iron balustrade like a large inclined mesh with spiral scrolls top and bottom. Photographs on Council file show leaf-enriched panelled dado and enriched window architrave with fluted dado and enriched panel mouldings. The first floor front room has fine rococo ceiling (see Ison plate 128b and his description on page 193) and Regency double doors with flat astragals in panels with elaborate key patterns in corners. The third floor rear attic flat sitting room has Victorian moulded cornice, torus skirting, and grey-veined white marble Greek revival console fireplace.

Number 15: The Council file has been mislaid. The ground floor front room has original decorative ceiling (see Ison page 192 and plate 128a). The first floor front room (now the Duke of York Suite) has elaborate original decorative plaster ceiling (see Ison page 193 and plate 127b). The very deep frieze below the modillion cornice looks late Victorian or Edwardian. Now part of the Royal Crescent Hotel and extensively restored in late 1970s by William Bertram.

Number 16: Photographs of 22nd August 1990 on Council file show original dado with ovolo panels and walls panelled with enriched ovolo mouldings to ground floor front room. The building has an open string cantilevered stone staircase to rear. Acquired by the Royal Crescent Hotel in 1978 and extensively restored by William Bertram in late 1970s. See James Crathorne, 'The Royal Crescent Book of Bath' (1998) for various views.

Number 18: The screen wall of the coach house facing the garden with its Georgian Gothick central door and flanking windows was restored in 1993.

Number 19: Basement only inspected by Bath City Council in 1982. The front room has ceiling beam spanning front to rear in Georgian moulded casing, internal segmental arches to windows, and large dresser. The centre pantry and narrow internal room were probably originally part of back room. The back room has bay window and two windows and pair of French windows in plain cyma-reversa-moulded architraves and unmoulded box shutters. The back area below garden has delicate original iron balustrade with rococo enrichment of alternate balusters.

Number 21 was inspected by Bath City Council in 1987 and 1989. The ground floor entrance hall has cavetto and rope-moulded torus plaster panel mouldings to walls and elliptical arched opening to staircase hall supported on Doric pilasters with fanlight over double glazed doors with Regency architraves with flowers in corner blocks. The staircase hall has Regency cornice, staircase with square banisters alternating with very delicate S-shaped wrought iron balusters incorporating palmettes, and stone paved floor with black diamond inserts. The front room has Regency cornice with Greek scrollwork and reeding in soffit, nice reproduction grey and white marble fireplace with a lady with a lyre and a cherub in the oval central panel, and original six panel ovolo-moulded door in Regency architraves. The back room is sub-divided into two and has original modillion cornice, modern neo-Adamesque fireplace, oval of husks set in low modern ceiling but original cavetto and torus skirting. The first floor landing has arch blocked with pair of Regency doors with architraves. The inner landing has Regency cornice with key pattern in soffit, egg and leaf enrichment and nice acanthus rose. The front room has enriched modillion cornice, original shutters, later picture rail and plaster panels, white marble fireplace with lady with cornucopia in panel in frieze concealed beneath modern Sienna marbling, and pair of Regency double doors with reeded architraves and flowers on corner blocks. The back room is subdivided and has false ceiling with small dentil cornice and Neo-Georgian fireplace. The second floor front room west has coved cornice, two windows with box shutters, fireplace with Ionic marble half columns with very good cast iron egg-timer grate, three-panel cupboard doors either side, and six-panel ovolo door to Landing. The front room east has original moulded cornice as back rooms, one window, Regency cornice, modern cast iron fireplace, and six panel door with architrave with two fascias. The back room west has triple windows with box shutters. The back room east has two windows with Georgian two-panel ovolo shutters. The attic has four attic rooms, two front and two back, and central stairs. The back room west has moulded Georgian cornice, four-panel cyma-reversa moulded doors, plain architrave fireplace, and six-panel ovolo door. The back room east has four panel door. The staircase hall has pyramidal roof light over and original staircase round central well with Doric newel and Doric colonnette banisters. This house has been fully recorded by the Bath Preservation Trust survey of interiors, which reports survival of a cantilevered top-lit open well stair with stone steps, cast iron balusters with S-scroll and lyre decoration, and mahogany handrail; outer hall with stone flagged floor with slate dots and dentil cornice with leaf and rosette decoration. The inner hall has Greek revival plasterwork and reeded door surrounds, indicating a subsequent, post-1800 campaign of redecoration. The front room has plaster panels to walls, reeded ceiling, panelled shutters, six-panel doors within reeded architraves, and replaced fireplace. The ground floor rear room (now kitchen) has six-panel doors, panelled shutters, and cornice as in outer hall. The basement has been converted to flat but retains wine cellar. The first floor landing has Greek Revival plasterwork to ceiling. The drawing room to front has marble fireplace (probably early 19th century) with relief of an allegorical figure of Plenty reclining with a cornucopia, modillion cornice, early 19th-century fluted door surrounds with square rosettes, and six-panel double doors. The bedrooms to rear have been altered with later bathroom extension at back. The second floor has two bedrooms to front and rear: the larger front room has marble fireplace with Ionic columns either side of early basket grate with iron surround, six-panel doors, panelled inbuilt cupboards and shutters. A wooden staircase with turned columns leads to attic with two rooms to front and back retaining panelled doors and stone surround fireplace to rear.

Number 22 was inspected by Bath City Council in 1988. The basement front room has two windows with segmental arches, three fireplace openings, and six panel unmoulded door. The back room is now subdivided: the east room has plain fireplace; the west has original ovolo-moulded glazing bars in window sashes. Two more rooms exist in an extension under paved terrace. The ground floor entrance hall has modillion cornice, dado and big original cavetto and torus skirting, central elliptical arch on Doric pilasters with fanlight and glazed double doors, and back corridor to garden. The staircase hall in middle of house has 18th-century stone staircase with square banisters and central well with lift installed early 20th century by Lady Noble in order to entertain Queen Mary to tea on the first floor. The front room has enriched modillion cornice with central rococo acanthus leaf rose, torus and cavetto plaster mouldings to divide walls into panels, enriched mahogany door, original window shutters, fine white marble Greek revival fireplace with capitals with anthemia and delicate volutes said to come from one of the Greek Revival houses on the west side of Queen Square, and unpanelled dado. The back room has modillion cornice and six-panel enriched mahogany door. The first floor central landing has enriched modillion cornice. The front room has modillion cornice, no dado, boxed ovolo shutters, 18th-century grey veined white marble fireplace with egg and dart in eared architrave and carved frieze, and Victorian mahogany door. The back room has enriched modillion cornice and good Greek revival white marble fireplace with columns either side of opening and a panel of Grecian ornament in the frieze. The second floor staircase hall has 18th-century octagonal glazed lantern over with rococo rose in middle. The front rooms have plain moulded 18th-century cornices. The west room has two windows and very good original fireplace with dentil cornice and central panel in frieze with young man and a lion. The east room has early 19th-century painted fireplace. The back rooms west room has cornice as front rooms, two windows, coved cornice, original skirting, original fireplace with garlands, bows and leaves in frieze, and original six-panel doors. The one bay east room has original cornice and six panel doors. The third floor attic staircase has original Doric colonnette banisters. There are two front and three back rooms: the west front room has segmental plaster barrel vaulted ceiling. This interior was recorded by Bath Preservation Trust survey of interiors, which reports stone floor to hall with slate dots, cantilevered top-lit open well stair with stone steps, cast iron balusters two per tread, later floral scrolled post at foot, and lift said to have been installed in 1932 for visits of Queen Mary. The dining room to ground floor front has plaster panels to walls, dentil cornice with rosettes and acanthus decoration, early 19th-century white marble fireplace, six-panel mahogany door, and panelled shutters. The ground floor rear (now a kitchen) has dentil cornice and ceiling rose, moulded architraves, six-panel mahogany door, and panelled shutters. The drawing room to first floor has modillion cornice and ceiling rose and grey-veined marble fireplace (probably original) with egg and dart moulding on inner border and central relief panel of white marble with eagle crest in oval, set between rosettes, six-panel door, and five-panel shutters. The first floor rear (now a bedroom with dressing room attached) has same cornice as dining room and white marble early 19th-century fireplace with splayed-base columns and foliate relief to centre, six-panel door, and five-panel split shutters. The second floor has two bedrooms with adjoining dressing rooms (now bathrooms) with moulded plaster cornices and painted wooden fireplace surrounds with composition mouldings: relief of reclining figure with lion beneath dentil cornice to front room, and Adamesque ribbon and husk ornament to rear room.

Number 23 was inspected by Bath City Council in 1970. See photograph of staircase in Ison, plate 122a. The ground floor front room has fine cornice, ceiling rose, and fine fireplace. The back room is subdivided and has oval ceiling rose, good white marble fireplace with fluted pilasters and frieze, and mezzanine sleeping area. The first floor staircase landing has cornice, oval rose and wall panels to match front room's. The front room has cornice with leaf scrollwork between modillions, central rose with radiating leaves, walls panelled with plaster bead mouldings, opening to back room with architrave matching those to landing door and windows, crude modern fireplace, and double glazed doors to back room sliding into thickness of wall. The back room has mezzanine, small cornice, and small white marble fireplace. The second floor front room to left has one window and small cornice. That to right has two windows and white marble fireplace inlaid with green black marble in Grecian style with urns. The back room to left has three bays with simple cornice and grey marble fireplace with part-fluted columns. The third floor back rooms are as below floors with no features of note.

Number 24 was partly inspected by Bath City Council in 1984. See plan in Ison, page 112. The first floor front room is sub-divided with Edwardian cornice, enriched window architraves and shutters, and very fine original white marble fireplace with central panel carved with donkeys. The back room has bow window, original cornice with eggs and darts over cove ornamented with acanthus leaves, and original plain white marble fireplace with richly figured Sienna marble fascia and 18th-century cast iron egg timer hob grate.

Number 25: See Ison, plate 136a, for photograph of late 18th-century wood and composition fireplace.

Number 27 was partly inspected by Bath City Council in 1985 and 1987. Number 27 is now linked to Number 28. The ground floor front room has modillion cornice, window shutters and architraves removed, and Regency fireplace with corner roundels. The main staircase has high quality rococo frieze over door to top landing extension (probably from a fireplace), walls panelled with reeded and cavetto plaster mouldings with ribbons, good cove cornice on first floor, and early 19th-century square banisters with nice ironwork on landings. The first floor front room has a photograph showing fireplace with anthemion and palmettes painted on frieze which has central panel with shallow draped urn and tapering pilasters either side of architrave with upper roundels and flutes, their lower third filled with convex reeds. The back room is intact. The third floor front room east has four panel unmoulded door and beaded skirting. The front room west has original stone unmoulded architrave fireplace with Edwardian grate. The back room east has same door and skirting. The back room west has bay window, timber fireplace, and same door and architrave. The attic staircase has very delicate original stair with Doric newel and mahogany handrail with Doric colonnette banisters.

Number 28 was partly inspected by Bath City Council in 1984. The basement back room has original ovolo sashes. The ground floor front room has good modillion cornice. The back room has good modillion cornice with rosettes, windows with box shutters, and original doors. The staircase has half the original staircase surviving with stone steps and its original handrail. The first floor front room has a Council photograph of 1990 showing an original-looking entablature with enriched frieze, walls with unpanelled dado and plaster panel mouldings and windows with two-panel box shutters, modillion cornice, fine early 19th-century fireplace with waterleaf capitals, and early 19th-century shutters with rosettes in borders. The back room has cornice as front, early 19th-century French windows with fanlights with crossed glazing bars, and early 19th-century white marble fireplace. The third floor front room east has four panel door with cyma-reversa-moulded single fascia beaded architrave and good 18th-century fireplace with cyma-moulded stone architrave, moulded cornice and iron grate fitted with iron doors to keep the fire in. The back east has window with cyma reversa architrave and two-panel ovolo shutters on deep beaded sill. The back room west has early 19th-century plain slate fireplace.

Number 29 was inspected by Bath City Council on 14th September 1977 and 18th May 1979. The ground floor has small outer lobby with modillion cornice and plaster panels to walls and half-round arch with fanlight with cobweb tracery over full width pair of doors half-glazed with bevelled glass panes. The main inner hall has modillion cornice, plaster rope mouldings to walls, plain dado, Bath stone floor paving with pennant stone diamond inserts on the diagonal, six-panel doors to ground floor rooms with double centre muntins to imitate pairs of doors and flat astragals to panels, and fluted pilasters supporting central moulded semi-circular arch with thirteen square coffers in soffit. The front room has enriched modillion cornice, enriched architraves, dado rail, shutter and door panel mouldings, and modern fireplace. The back room is subdivided and has enriched modillion cornice, leaf and honeysuckle flower ceiling rose, and fine white and coloured marble fireplace with brown/grey Ionic three-quarter columns with white paterae to raised frieze over, shallow urn carved on raised plaque in middle of frieze and architrave, and rest of frieze fluted. When visited on 18th May 1979 this was to be moved to the first floor front drawing room to replace a neo-Adamesque one. The staircase is stone with moulded soffit and veneered mahogany handrail on two square banisters per tread ramped at landings, with fine decorative wall plaster over and garlands at sides of window to half landing. The panel over the window is incised with 'T. R. GOUGH', possibly the name of the plasterer. The back addition has a panelled closet with cupboards with rounded corners and horizontal and vertical guilloche pattern between the panelled doors. An Italianate round-arched Victorian conservatory is at the end. The first floor front room has enriched modillion cornice, heavily decorated ceiling with oval centrepiece, four panels, garlands at corners and round centrepiece, and regrettable modern timber panel mouldings to walls. The back room is subdivided and has enriched modillion cornice, ceiling rose ornamented with leaf and honeysuckle, and heavily ornamented white marble fireplace. The second floor has the moulding of an elliptical arch either side of entrance door. The small front room has plain moulded cornice and simple architrave fireplace. The large front room has cornice as above, plain six-panel door between rooms, and fireplace with stone architrave with timber moulding. The back room has moulded cornice as above, bay window, and white marble fireplace as on first floor. The staircase landing has unenriched modillion cornice and plaster rope mouldings to walls of staircase and landing.

Number 30 was partially inspected on 19th July 1976, 21st November 1977, 23rd December 1982, 1989 and 17th July and 10th October 1990. The basement front east has original enriched architrave fireplace. The front west has small fireplace on splayed chimneybreast with enriched moulded architrave, four-panel doors with cyma-moulded single fascia architraves, and original twelve pane sash window with 20mm thick ovolo and fillet glazing bars. The large north west room (possibly original kitchen) has Victorian six-inch black and white terracotta tiles on floor and unmoulded stone fireplace surround. The south west rear kitchen extension is a later addition. The first floor four-bay east room is now subdivided and has modillion cornice with very deep late Victorian or Edwardian embossed anaglypta frieze, very fine original decorative plaster ceiling with octagonal centre panel and ovals either side framing elaborate sprays of naturalistic leaves on entwined branches, plaster panel mouldings on the walls that look later, no dado, and very fine marble fireplace with white Ionic columns, architrave and cornice and central white marble plaque carved with Zeus with an eagle and a thunderbolt on a cloud set against Sienna marble background. The central landing has elliptical vault over front hall below and Venetian window opening to original stone staircase. The south west corner room is subdivided into four and has white marble Regency fireplace. The north west room has pretty decorative plaster ceiling with central roundel of twigs with two birds and palms in the corners and rococo cartouches over the centre of the reeded border, Venetian rear windows, original white and sienna marble fireplace, and panelled dado. The staircase has rectangular lantern over with three-pane high glazed lights on three sides, cornice and panelled ceiling. This was formerly the home of Edward James, patron and associate of the Surrealist movement. This interior was partly recorded by Bath Preservation Trust, which notes entrance screen to hall carried on slender Doric columns and pilasters with foliate capitals, plaster panels to walls, stone flagged floor with slate dots, cantilevered stone stair, twisted banisters, broad hand rail, and large columnar newel post.

Subsidiary features

The crescent has uniform cast iron railings in front of deep, broad areas. A raised roadway and pavement runs in front, the road with original Pennant stone setts surviving along the full frontage, itself a survival of very special interest. Cast iron railings on the lawn side of the road are set into stone kerb. In front of the lawn is a ha-ha (see under Royal Victoria Park), faced with roughly squared blocks of stone.

Setting and significance

The Royal Crescent is remarkable for its scale, its geometric sophistication, its architectural subtlety, its relationship with the open landscape, its novelty and its subsequent influence. Its geometric sophistication lies in the semi-elliptical curve, which creates a gentle, flowing form. The architectural subtlety is evident in the handling of the giant order and the minimal variation in the façade to mark the centre. The relationship with the open landscape was revolutionary: this was the first such row to be left open, looking beyond the city, enjoying a rural southerly prospect.