12 AND 12A, GEORGE STREET (See details for further address information)

The building comprises two houses at 12 and 12A George Street, and includes the property at 31 Gay Street, representing the right terminal of a former three-house terrace. Constructed around 1734 by John Wood the Elder, it is part of a development leased by Wood in 1733 and likely completed by 1740, forming the northeastern termination of the Queen Square development, as shown on Wood’s 1735 plan of Bath. Its construction is in limestone ashlar with double-pitched, slate mansard roofs, hipped at the right corner, featuring dormers and moulded stacks to the party walls.

Architecturally, it is three storeys with attics, possessing a continuous coped parapet, a modillion cornice, and upper floor sill bands that return to the right. Horned plate glass sash windows are present throughout. The house at number 12 is set back and has a three-window range. A shop front, added around 1884 by Inman and Inman, projects to the street line, incorporating banded pilasters on the ground floor, which are fronted by Composite pilasters on pedestals topped with urns and fluted piers. The fascia, adorned with a dentil cornice, retains good scrolled cast iron cresting. The entrance has half-glazed double doors with a tall overlight featuring moulded colonnettes at the angles of the plate glass windows, which rest on open railings below the basement area. Numbers 12A and 31 Gay Street, forming the corner, are wider than number 12 and incorporate another shop front, also by Inman and Inman (though some sources attribute the design to Wilson, Willcox and Wilson, 1872). This shop front has a dentil cornice and a pediment on each side supported by pilasters similar to those of number 11. A triangular threshold leads to a six-panel door and overlight to the left, with double half-glazed doors to the right. A two-pane window is centrally located, and double glazed doors with an overlight are set back under the right-hand pediment, flanked by curved plate glass panes. The return elevation to Gay Street (number 31) features a single plain sash window above the shop front, also from 1884 by Inman and Inman, and is characterised by stone pilasters and a fascia with acroteria. A paired dormer is present within the mansard, and a large stack supports a continuous range of pots to the right. The interior has not been inspected. The Crozier-Cole collection holds a drawing dated 1872 attributed to Wilson, Willcox and Wilson, relating to these shop fronts. Numbers 12 and 12A were initially listed on 5th August 1975.