1, Manvers Street

This is a Greek Revival style house, now a bank, built around 1845. It may have been designed by Henry Underwood, and was originally part of the Manvers Estate. The building occupies a corner plot on Manvers Street and Henry Street in Bath. It was intended to be the western range of a planned Kingston Square, but this development was not completed beyond numbers 1 and 2. Buildings in this severe Greek Revival style from this period are relatively rare in Bath, being more common in nearby Bristol and Cheltenham.

The house is constructed of limestone ashlar with a Welsh slate roof to the rear extension. It is three storeys high with a full attic and basement. The Manvers Street elevation has three bays divided by Tuscan pilasters, the central bay being wider than the outer ones. The ground floor features an arched, panelled door on the left, a tripartite sash window in the centre, and a single sash window to the right, all with late 19th-century plate glass. Cast iron area railings are present, although those at the basement level have been removed due to security concerns. A giant order runs through the first and second floors. The first floor's central window is fitted with French windows opening onto a small balcony with a pierced parapet, and has a decorative cornice hood on brackets. All upper floor windows are sash windows with six panes per sash. A heavy cornice runs along the top, with pilasters rising through the attic and onto the parapet, and a left-hand ashlar stack with chimney pots.

The Henry Street elevation features paired pilasters on either side but not in the centre. It has three evenly spaced windows on the upper floors, while the ground floor has had the central window replaced by an automatic teller. Cast iron area railings are present but incomplete. The ground floor windows are sash windows within architraves, with plate glass. The first floor windows are tall French windows with cornice heads and balconettes with pierced parapets. The upper floor windows have architraves with six/six sashes. A heavy cornice and pilasters rising to a parapet coping match those on the Manvers Street front. A single-storey extension to the rear has three round-headed windows set in shallow recesses.

The interior, inspected in 1973, includes a stone-flagged entrance hall, a pair of five-leaf shutters for the triple window, a stone staircase with cast iron balusters (two per tread), and is otherwise unremarked. Henry Underwood’s practice was located nearby on Pierrepont Street and he may have acted as surveyor for the Manvers Estate, impacting the design of this prominent building.