Nos. 28-31 (Consec) And Attached Railings And Gates

Nos. 28-31 form a group of four terrace houses built around 1790, located on the north side of Great Pulteney Street in Bath. They were designed by Thomas Baldwin, along with John Eveleigh and other architects, as part of the late 18th-century development of the Bathwick estate. The houses are constructed of limestone ashlar with double-pitched slate mansard roofs, featuring dormers and moulded stacks topped with some original hand-thrown chimney pots. Party walls are coped.

The architectural style is characterised by a three-window range on each house, three storeys high, with lower ground floors and basements. A continuous coped parapet, now partially removed, runs along the terrace, complemented by a modillion cornice, frieze, and fascia. Moulded sill stringcourses are present on the second and first floors, and the windows are mostly six/six-pane sashes. The ground floor features a platband moulded to the base, presenting chamfered rustication with radial voussoirs to flat arches. The main entrance doors are raised and fielded, consisting of eight panels with large overlights.

No. 28 steps forward and incorporates a pedimented front with a semicircular arched first-floor window, similar to those found in Nos. 21 and 40 on the same street. This window features radial glazing bars and a cornice on consoles with a double festoon to its frieze, flanked by paterae. An ornamental fanlight is incorporated into the fanlight above the door. Nos. 29-31 are distinguished by a grand order of fluted Corinthian columns, with a quarter column to the left of No. 29 at the set-back angle with No. 28. No. 29 features balconettes on its first floor and bears a bronze plaque commemorating William Smith, the "father of English geology," who dictated his work "The Order of the Strata" within the premises in 1799. Nos. 30 and 31 have oval timber overlights with radial glazing bars.

The interior of the houses has not been inspected. The terrace is fronted by square-section railings with urn finials and vases, along with gates leading to the basement areas; some railings feature boot scrapers.

Great Pulteney Street, laid out at an unusually generous 100ft width, forms a significant part of the Bathwick estate’s development, standing as one of the most imposing urban landscapes in Britain. Robert Adam initially prepared designs in 1782, but Thomas Baldwin was ultimately responsible for the final design. Initial leases were granted in 1788, but building progress was hampered by an economic downturn in the mid-1790s. Subdivisions occurred at Nos. 28 in 1977, No. 29 in 1980, No. 30 in 1974, and No. 31 in 1959-60. No. 31 was separately listed on 11th August 1972.