Nos. 1-6 (Consec) With Railings And Piers

Six terrace houses stepped down to the right in pairs on Woodland Place, dating to around 1826 and designed by H.E. Goodridge. The houses are constructed in limestone ashlar with slate roofs.

The terrace is set across a steeply sloping site and was designed as a balanced composition both front and rear, though the slope makes this difficult to read from the front elevation alone and is best appreciated from the rear. Each house has wide single span gabled roofs with long narrow garden plots carried down between ashlar walls, some extending to sub-basement level.

The front elevation presents two storeys, an attic, basement and some with sub-basement, each house three windows wide. All front windows are twelve-pane sashes, including those to basements. The first floor centre windows of Nos. 3, 4 and 5 have margin panes. No. 3 has balconettes to the outer first-floor windows, while No. 4 has a pair of French casements to the right. Each house has a slightly set-forward central bay with a projecting square porch carried on panelled pilasters supporting a deep plain frieze, moulded cornice and blocking. The paired panelled doors, original to Nos. 3 to 6, feature fielded panels and studded frame members in painted wood, with deep transom lights normally having margin pane glazing.

The basement areas have simple railings on curbs, except No. 4, with a glazed laylight to No. 6. The ground floor has channelled ashlar with a plain band corresponding to the porch frieze beneath a thin moulded string. The upper floor carries a deep frieze band beneath the cornice and blocking. Gables and party divisions are coped with large shared stacks at each end. No. 6 has an added bay to the right with plain sash and an upper level added around 1936.

At the rear, the houses are three full storeys. Windows are generally glazing bar sashes, those at middle floor and ground floor set to stone slab balconies on paired wooden brackets with cast iron balustrades. Deep fifteen-pane windows at this level reach to floor level, with the lower sash capable of being raised partly into the floor above to give balcony access. Nos. 3 and 4 have tripartite sashes in their outer bays set to shallow recessed arched panels. No. 4's upper floor four-pane sashes have been extended downwards, cutting across the arched panel. No. 3 has French casements. Most houses have two or three small twelve-pane sash dormers.

The canted bays feature a small quirk in the masonry at the front face, with large balcony lights mainly having margin panes and smaller lights on returns having splayed jambs set to separate balconies. At garden level, generally at sub-basement level, are French doors in varied designs. No. 2 has a late 20th century lean-to conservatory.

No. 6 is contained by a long boundary wall with square buttresses and stepped and swept coping, returning down the lower edge of the site from a pair of gatepiers. At the bottom end this gives to a wide carriage entrance in an arch with flush voussoirs; three deep compartments are vaulted in stone.

The interior of No. 6 was inspected and is unusually complex, with four main floors and two lesser levels. The porch opens to an open well staircase with winders and Bath stone treads to nosings, stick balustrade and swept hardwood handrail. Doors throughout are panelled in various patterns and windows have panelled shutters except on the top floor. Some cornices appear to have been modified and reduced in depth. Two principal ground floor reception rooms have white marble fire surrounds with foliate consoles over Regency-style iron grates. A spring-fed water supply runs through to a sandstone trough in the garden. At the lowest level are two deep vaulted compartments with open outer ends, probably used as conservatories. No. 1 was converted into three flats in 1964.

The terrace frontage is enclosed by simple railings with dogbars on low rounded curbs, stepped to maintain a horizontal top. At opposite entrances and party divisions are square piers with incised panels and decorative arched cappings; No. 1 retains an original iron gate. No. 2 has no railings or piers, and No. 5 has a small garage set on the forecourt to the right.

The houses date from 1826 and are said to have been occupied by Goodridge. The terrace remains externally very little modified and represents a fine example of early 19th-century development in this part of Bathwick Hill, well away from the city centre.