Walcot Rectory and attached railings

Walcot Rectory and Attached Railings

A house now known as Walcot Rectory, built between 1770 and 1775 by John Wood the Younger. The building has undergone alterations in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The front elevation is constructed in limestone ashlar, with ashlar and rubble to the rear. It features a double pile parapeted mansard roof covered in Welsh slate, with coped party walls and two ashlar stacks to the right.

The building forms part of a terrace with Nos. 5 and 7 Rivers Street, breaking forward slightly to create the frontage to the north side of Catharine Place. It comprises three storeys, an attic and a basement. The first floor contains a Venetian window with plate glass horned sashes in plain reveals, a continuous stone sill and a continuous wrought iron balconette, with 19th-century timber blind boxes. The second floor has three grouped plate glass horned sashes (narrower at the left and right) in plain reveals with a continuous stone sill and 19th-century timber blind boxes. The ground floor has two paired sashes to the right in plain reveals with a continuous stone sill, a simple balconette and 19th-century timber blind boxes. To the left is a six-panel door with flush reeded, fielded and single glazed panel beneath a pedimented Doric doorcase, with one step rising to a pennant paved crossover with a cast iron foot-scraper. The basement contains two six-over-six sashes in plain reveals with a continuous stone sill and a plank door set in ashlar infilling beneath the crossover.

Limestone area steps with a wrought iron handrail rise to the front entrance. A double dormer with plate glass sashes is positioned above. A band course runs over the ground floor, with a modillion cornice and coped parapet continuous with the adjoining properties. The rear elevation features plate glass horned sashes and a cantilevered lavatory extension to the second half-landing.

The interior retains significant 19th-century features alongside original details. The ground floor front room contains a 19th-century fireplace, probably of stone, now blocked with tiling and a gas fire. It features dado-panelling, six-panel ovolo moulded doors with hollow architraves, ovolo shutters and a cornice enriched with a swag frieze. The hall has an enriched cornice with swags and an enriched arch, a nine-pane back door with iron plates below in a large ovolo architrave, and iron straps to a six-panel door in an early back extension. A timber basement staircase with a stick baluster grip handrail and stone flagged hall are present. The ground floor rear (kitchen) has no fireplace, six-panel doors with hollow architraves, half shutters and an enriched cornice with swag frieze. The staircase features a closed string with top balustrade, mahogany grip handrail and balusters to the first flight smaller than those to the second floor. An enriched cornice marks the first landing, with a run cornice to the first half-landing.

The first floor front room contains a Sienna marble fireplace with a reeded surround and tiled insert with gas fire. It has hollow architraves to six-panel ovolo moulded doors, a pair of eight-panel doors and ovolo moulded shutters, with deeply moulded skirting but no cornice. The first floor rear has a stone and timber fireplace with a double hollow architrave and timber shelf fitted with a gas fire. A chimney breast cupboard to the left is ovolo moulded with a hollow architrave; to the right is a 19th-century dumb waiter. An ovolo moulded soffit and panel appear below the window, with shutters now removed. A six-panel ovolo moulded door with a 20th-century architrave is present, and there is no cornice.

The second floor front is one large room with a stone beaded and stepped surround with a timber hollow architrave and later timber shelf, a tiled hearth and opening with a gas fire. Unmoulded six-panel doors in cyma architraves lead to the room, a chimney breast cupboard and a communicating door between rooms, except for the chimney breast cupboard door to the right, which has ovolo moulded panels and a later cyma architrave. Unmoulded panels appear on shutters and the soffit and panel below the windows. A three-panel door to a cupboard under the attic staircase has H hinges and an attached section of skirting with a later architrave. There is no cornice. The second floor rear has a fireplace as the front, a three-panel cupboard without skirting, shutters with a slightly splayed reveal and no cornice. The second half-landing features a 19th-century closed string balustrade with turned balusters and a softwood handrail to the top flight. A reeded and roundel architrave surrounds a three-pane window over a door, and a four-panel door with 19th-century moulding in a similar architrave leads to the water closet.

The top floor has unmoulded four-panel doors with 19th and 20th-century architraves and no fireplaces. A small stone surround opening is blocked with a 20th-century shelf in the front left. A winder attic staircase with a 19th-century balustrade is present.

The basement rear room (chapel) contains no fireplace but has three-panel chimney breast cupboards with pegs in the hall, cyma architraves and unmoulded shutters in a splayed reveal to the window. A small four-pane window has a thin lead or zinc basin in a shelf below. The front area has one T-arched range arch partially blocked to the right with a probable former opening to the left. A range of cupboards to the far end features an arched opening and a complete dresser with a fat ovolo architrave to the door. Shutters appear at the windows. The stone floor includes a drop handle and spring latch to the basement door. A raised tiled floor to the rear area has joinery fitted inside.

Attached wrought iron railings and gate with shaped heads are set on limestone bases.

Rivers Street was developed by John Wood the Younger on three parcels of land. Nos. 1-11 were constructed in conjunction with Catharine Place on ground conveyed on perpetual leasehold from Sir Benet Garrard to Wood and Brock as his trustee on 19 and 20 December 1766. Nos. 16-28 and 36-47 Rivers Street with areas behind Nos. 46 and 47 were conveyed from the Rivers Estate (owned by Sir Peter Rivers Gay) to Wood on 5 March 1768 for 99 years. Nos. 28-35 Rivers Street were constructed in conjunction with Russell Street on ground bought by John Wood and Andrew Sproule as his trustee from Thomas and Daniel Omer on 30 December 1768 on perpetual freehold rents. A strip of ground on which Nos. 12-15 and 48-50 Rivers Street were constructed was probably never acquired by Wood. The sites of Nos. 12-15 were conveyed from the Rivers Estate to Thomas and James Beale on 30 December 1774 and 16 October 1776 on perpetual freehold rents. A number of different Bath builders were responsible for implementing Wood's overall design.