No. 2 With Railings

This is a grand house, now offices, built between 1729 and 1734 by John Wood the Elder as part of the development of Queen Square in Bath. It is a prominent building in a terrace of six on the east side of the square. The house is constructed from limestone ashlar with a Welsh slate roof. It has a double-depth plan with a central entrance and three storeys, an attic, and a basement, with five windows to each front elevation, all featuring restored six/six sash windows. The main entrance is within a Baroque-style doorcase, incorporating a broken pediment, rectangular panel with a carved display of fruit and flowers, and finely carved swags and brackets carved as lion's skin masks. The first-floor windows have raised sills and splayed surrounds with cornice heads, while the second-floor windows have eared architraves. A dripcourse runs above the basement windows, and a platband sits above the ground floor, with a shallow blocking course and a continuous parapet that aligns with the adjoining No. 3. A Mansard roof features three flat-topped dormers with six/six sash windows. The ends of the roof have coped party divisions with shared ashlar stacks. The rear elevation is not visible. The interior was reconstructed as offices around 1958. Simple cast iron railings on stone curbs enclose the basement areas and return to the doorway over an area bridge. Originally, Richard Child, Earl Tylney, occupied both No. 2 and No. 3, and the shared carved doorcase may reflect a late flowering of Baroque stone carving. The site was leased from Robert Gay, and underleases were granted between 1729 and 1731. Wood initially intended to level the sloping site, but this plan was abandoned due to cost. Queen Square represents the first large-scale example of town planning in Bath, drawing inspiration from contemporary London house building and creating a monumental ensemble. The square forms the earliest and lowest part of the sequence of developments by the Wood family, culminating in the Royal Crescent.