1, South Parade

SOUTH PARADE 656-1/15/1504

No.1

(Formerly Listed as: SOUTH PARADE No.1. Nos 2 and 3 (Farrell's Hotel). Nos 4-8 (consec) (Pratt's Hotel)) 12/06/50

GV I

House, now mixed use. 1743. By John Wood the Elder. MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, with Welsh slate roof. PLAN: Double depth terrace house with three bays to South Parade and four bays to Pierrepont Street. EXTERIOR: This three storey house, with attic and basement, and projecting forward from its neighbours, forms the left-hand end of a Palladian palace-fronted terrace, twenty-nine bays in all, arranged three:seven:three:three:three:seven:three. Platband at first floor level, inscribed in capitals SOUTH PARADE¿. Modillion cornice, balustraded parapet. Windows are late C19 plate glass sashes, but in unaltered openings with plain architraves and cornice heads on first floor. Six panel door with pediment on console brackets. Wrought iron front area railings in place of the original stone balustrade; basement window openings blocked. Mansard roof with two flat topped dormers, ashlar stack without pots. Elevation to Pierrepont Street of four bays, the southern three projecting forward as part of the end of terrace emphasis. Aedicular door surround with pediment carried on consoles in second bay from right; panelled door, altered. Matching window surrounds to front elevation; left-hand pair with C19 plate glass windows, right-hand pair of blind windows, that on ground floor to right of door missing. Sill band to first floor, inscribedPIERREPONT STREET¿ in sunk capitals. Modillion cornice, parapet, three flat topped casement dormers. Wrought iron area railings. INTERIOR: Not inspected. HISTORY: Wood ('Essay', p.248) records the corner house on South Parade as being built in 1743, the first part of the street to be constructed. Part of the uncompleted John Wood scheme for the Abbey Orchard, 1740-1749, and thus part of one of the major urban developments of the day, built to a single overall design. This prominent corner house is notable for retaining its stone parapet balustrade: the others have been largely dismantled. SOURCES: John Wood, 'A Description of Bath' (2nd ed. 1765, repr. 1969), 248 & 349-51; Walter Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bath¿ (2nd d. 1980), 137, 229; Mowl T and Earnshaw B:John Wood Architect of Obsession¿ (1988), 135-147; James Lees-Milne and D. Ford, `Images of Bath¿ (1982), 608.

Listing NGR: ST7525464628