Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 6 July 2017

656-1/31/1172

PARAGON
Nos.1-21 (Consec)

(Formerly Listed as: THE PARAGON Nos.1A AND 1-21 (Consec))

12/06/50

GV
I
Twenty-one terrace houses slightly concave uniform on site that level to front and falls steeply away to rear. 1768-1775 (plans approved 7 September 1768 Council Minutes) with C19 alterations. By Thomas Warr Atwood.

MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, double pitched slate mansard roofs each with two dormers and moulded stacks to party walls.

PLAN: Double depth plans.

EXTERIOR: Three storeys with attics and basement to front, five storeys with attics to rear, each house has three window range. Continuous coped parapet, modillion cornice, ground floor platband and plinth, raised and fielded six panel doors (some altered to five panels) to right of each house in doorcases with Tuscan pilasters supporting entablature and pediment (some altered), formerly with six/six pane sash windows (now mostly plate glass to main floors) with splayed reveals, to upper floors in moulded architraves, first floors have lowered sills (leases which were renewed in c1870, all demand that first floor windows should be cut down, that they be glazed with British plate glass, and that surrounds be splayed), pediments over central windows flanked by windows with cornices. Terminals step slightly forward with stopped cornices, chamfered rustication with radial voussoirs and ground floor openings set in semicircular arched recesses.
No.1 to right has six/six pane sash windows to basement and door glazed to top.
No.2 has six/six pane sashes to basement.
No.3 has two/two pane sashes to basement.
No.4 has six/six pane sashes to basement, five panel door glazed to top with cast iron wreath knocker.
No.5 has boarded-up lower windows and door. Doorcase has open pediment supported by fluted pilasters.
No.6 boarded up, first floor windows have late C19 cast iron flower guards.
No.7 has six/six pane sash windows to basement and five panel door glazed to top. No.8 has two/two pane sash windows to basement, flower guards to left and centre of first floor.
No.9 has six/six pane sash windows, six/nine panes to first floor.
No.10 has six/six pane sash windows to basement, half-glazed four panel door and flower guards to first floor windows.
No.11 has six/six pane sashes to basement, six panel door glazed to top and balconettes to first floor windows.
No.12 has no horns to sash windows which are six/six, and six/nine panes to first floor, six panel door has glazed to top.
No.13 has six/six pane sashes to basement, trellised balconettes
to first floor and six panel door glazed to top.
No.14 has flower holders to first floor and five panel door glazed to top.
No.15 has six/six pane sashes to basement, flower holders to first floor and late C19 six panel door with ornamental corners to three vertical panels to top and base.
No.16 has six/six pane sashes to basement, and six panel door glazed to top with cast iron wreath knocker.
No.17 similar to No.16 without cast iron knocker.
No.18 similar to No.17 with five panel door.
No.19 has six/six pane sashes to basement, six panel glazed to top has inverted corners to upper central, pediment replaced by cornice, cut into platband above shallow hood on inverted pyramidal brackets.
No. 20 has six/six pane sashes to basement and six panel door glazed to top. This was the home and office of C.H. Basnett Architect 1813-1820 (Bath Directory).
No.21, left terminal and similar to No.1, named Gilbert Mullin's House, has all plate glass sash windows, six panel door glazed to top and `PARAGON BUILDINGS` carved into platband.

INTERIORS: Not inspected.

HISTORY: This is reputed to be the first consciously designed and "crescent" of houses in Britain, but it does no more than follow the existing roadline. Nos 1-30 Royal Crescent (listed at Grade I) was designed earlier, but building began here first. In 1801, Jane Austen and her family stayed at No.1 with Mr and Mrs Leigh Perrott, her uncle and aunt. This followed Revd Austen’s retirement from the Church of St Nicholas in Steventon, Hampshire. From here the Austens carried out a search for a more permanent place to live in Bath and letters written by Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra from this address describe in detail the places they considered.

Sources: W. Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bath (1980), 152.
Listing NGR: ST7506265352

This Listing was enhanced in 2017 to mark the bicentenary of Jane Austen's death.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17524635

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Old House Care and Repair
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Maintaining and Repairing Old Houses: A Guide to Conservation, Sustainability and Economy
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)