Nos. 12 And 13 And Attached Railings

Nos. 12 and 13 Queen Square and Attached Railings

Two terrace houses, now in office use, forming the western end of the south side of Queen Square. Built between 1729 and 1736 (the south side possibly around 1735) to designs by architect John Wood the Elder. The buildings are constructed in limestone ashlar with slate roofs.

The two houses form part of what was originally a complete terrace creating a unified palace front along the south side of Queen Square. They are now listed separately from the adjacent Francis Hotel, which was largely rebuilt following substantial bomb damage. The two properties share a later rear wing, each with a half-cylindrical stair turret topped by a domed head. No. 13 has a full attic storey added, with the rear elevation developing to four storeys.

Both buildings are three storeys high with attic and basement levels. No. 13 projects slightly forward and features a pediment. Each has three windows on the main elevation, all plain sash windows except for two original twelve-pane dormers and one additional dormer. The second floor windows have eared architraves, while the first floor has moulded architraves with splayed surrounds and a straight cornice above a pulvinated frieze. The windows extend down through the former sill band.

The basement level, set within the plinth, contains two plain sash windows to No. 12 and two four-pane windows to No. 13. The ground floor windows also sit in splayed surrounds, with No. 13 having sunk plain arched panels and an impost band. No. 12 has a seven-panel door with a glazed top panel in a moulded architrave flanked by pilasters carrying deep scroll consoles to a full entablature. The frieze panel features high relief carving of a mask of Pan with garlands. The doorway shares a broad stone landing with steps leading to the adjoining Francis Hotel. No. 13 has a lofty pair of panelled doors beneath a double radial fanlight in a deep reveal, with stone steps to the landing.

No. 12 features a platband at first floor level, modillion cornice, and a central lead downpipe. Both houses have coped party divisions and a large shared stack within the mansard roof. The words "QUEEN SQUARE" are incised in capitals on the west end of the sill band of No. 13.

The western return to Princes Street continues the detailing from the Queen Square frontage. A pedimented three-bay centre projects forward with a high attic, flanked on each side by single small sash windows. The pedimented unit mostly has blind lights, except for one deep eight-pane sash at first floor level taken through the sill band, and a basement light to the left. A small square stack rises from the apex of the pediment.

To the rear, No. 12 has two large sixteen-pane dormers in the mansard roof above a wide twelve-pane plain sash and a four-pane sash. To the right is a stair turret with two plain arched sashes, the lower flanked by small rectangular lights with sill bands. This turret is paired with one in the immediately adjoining bay in the Francis Hotel. A flat-roofed four-storey wing has sashes in a single bay. No. 13 has two twelve-pane sashes to the full attic above a stair turret with arched sashes to two levels: a twelve-pane window with radial bars above one with side-lights and margin panes. To the right is a nine-pane window above a deep fifteen-pane window, with the wing having sashes in a single bay.

The interiors are currently in office use and have not been formally inspected for this description. However, records made by the Bath Preservation Trust survey of interiors document the following: Nos. 12 and 13 are linked internally. No. 12 has a cantilevered wooden stair with dado, curved at the half-landing to the first floor. The ground floor front room contains a pale grey reeded fireplace with a cupboard to the right. Upper floors show fewer surviving features, with evidence of an early 19th-century remodelling campaign including a grey marble fireplace and panelled cupboard to the first floor front room. No. 13 has a similar cantilevered staircase, apsed with a Venetian window at the half-landing, and a fanlight over the inner hall door. The ground floor front room has a reeded grey marble fireplace with Vitruvian scrolled frieze to the ceiling. The basement retains a cast iron range bearing the founder's mark of Tuck of Bath. The first floor front room features a panelled alcove, a grey marble fireplace with reeded columns, shutters, and a six-panel door. Few features survive on the upper floors.

The basement areas are enclosed by railings on ashlar curbs, returned at the doorways.

Although the south range of Queen Square was the least important architecturally within the overall ensemble, these two properties represent important survivals, having been spared from the bombing that destroyed much of the remainder of the range.

Queen Square was developed from 1728 onwards when John Wood leased the site from Robert Gay and granted underleases between 1729 and 1731 to various developers. The houses are first recorded as occupied in the rate books in 1734. Wood initially intended to level the sloping site but abandoned this plan on grounds of cost. Queen Square is of exceptional importance as the first large-scale instance of town planning undertaken in Bath. Drawing on precedents from contemporary London house building, Wood created through bold and skilful execution a monumental ensemble on a fresh sloping site some distance west of the former city walls. Each side of the square forms a symmetrical composition, though none of the sides are identical. Queen Square represents the earliest and lowest element in the sequence of set-pieces created by the Woods, culminating in the Royal Crescent.