7, Argyle Street

This is a shop, now a restaurant with accommodation above, built around 1789, with alterations in the early 19th century and the 20th century. It was designed by Thomas Baldwin and is located on Argyle Street in Bath. The building is constructed of Bath limestone ashlar with Welsh slate roofs. It occupies a wedge-shaped site and has a double-depth plan.

The exterior of No. 7 closely resembles No. 6, and together they flank the recessed front of the Argyle Congregational Chapel, creating a balanced composition of nine bays, arranged three:three:three. The building is three storeys high, with an attic and basement. It has three bays facing Argyle Street and one bay facing Laura Place. A projecting timber shop front features fluted Corinthian columns at each corner, a stall-riser, plate glass windows, and a central door. This shop front, similar to that of No. 6, was added in the mid-19th century and has been altered since.

The first floor has a sill band and six/six sash windows with plain reveals; the right-hand window is blind. There is Pompeian scrollwork above. The second floor windows match those on the first floor. A band and modillion cornice lead to a parapet, topped by a mansard roof with flat-topped dormers and a stone stack with decorative pots. The return elevation to Laura Place is one bay wide, with a giant fluted Corinthian order over a rusticated basement and six/six sash windows. The rear of No. 7 flanks the south elevation of Pulteney Bridge, presenting a rubble facade with windows of various sizes and dates, including one arch-headed six/six sash. Three vent pipes are located at ground floor level.

The interior of the building has not been inspected. Argyle Street, originally called Argyle Buildings, was an extension of Robert Adam’s Pulteney Bridge into Sir William Pulteney's Bathwick estate. The estate passed to his daughter Henrietta Laura in 1792, but building work on Laura Place had already begun in 1788. This terrace, alongside its opposite number, is a monumental extension northwards from Pulteney Bridge.