Sally Lunn's House

This list entyrwas subject to a Minor Enhancement on 29/01/2020

NORTH PARADE PASSAGE (North side) No. 4, Sally Lunn's House

(Formerly Listed as: NORTH PARADE PASSAGE No.4)

12/06/50

GV II*

House and shop. Partly C15, rebuilt in 1622 (lease) by George Parker, a carpenter and remodelled in around c1800.

MATERIALS: limestone rubble laid in thin even courses, with ashlar dressings, painted on ground floor, pantile roof.

PLAN: narrow double depth plan, gable end to street.

EXTERIOR: of late C17 appearance (Sally Lunn period) and of four storeys. Pairs of double hung sash windows of late C18 type, six/six in dressed surrounds. Continuous dripmould to each floor. Ground floor has entrance doorway to left and c1800 shopfront to right, partly glazed door with elaborately glazed rectangular light over, bowed shop window six/four. Third floor window in coped gable with oculus. Ashlar end stack with pots, further rubble stack to rear. Front originally faced northwards towards Abbey, now restored and faced with slates and has modern windows.

INTERIOR: ground floor much altered, large bread oven in basement under pavement, other oven in party wall with a grain or flour bin and flagged stone floor. Open well staircase with squat Doric newels and slender turned columnar balusters. Third floor door has possible original hinges. Rear wall timber framed and possible remains of earlier house. Two late medieval moulded fireplace surrounds, with shallow spandrels, recorded by Mowbray Green.

HISTORY: the earlier building on this site was part of the Duke of Kingston's House in 1482. It was leased as plots of land on 15 June 1622 from John Hall to George Parker, a carpenter of Bathford, with a covenant to build within five years. Pre 1750 maps show a very narrow alley dividing it from the house to the east, with a party wall to the west, of which some of the timber frame is still visible. Sally Lunn, a pastry cook and baker, was tenant in 1680; and Ralph Allen's first post office was here in 1725. In c1750 the ground level of North Parade Passage was raised to meet the new Galloway's Buildings, and the old ground floor became basement. A gabled front facing the passage was built. A later Georgian remodelling took place that faced the other way. Largely of C17 date, it graphically displays the building techniques of the earlier, pre-Wood, phase of Bath's fabric. In 1930 the house was restored with the aid of a grant.

SOURCE: Holland E: The Kingston Estate within the walled City of Bath: Bath: 1992-.

Listing NGR: ST7516264694