Description

TERRACE WALK
656-1/41/1669 (West side)

No.2 Bridgwater House

(Formerly Listed as: TERRACE WALK No.2)
12/06/50

GV II

House with coffee house below. 1748-1750. Probably by John Wood the Elder.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar front, now rendered and painted, rubble to side walls, Welsh slate roof.
PLAN: Double depth plan with rear wing.
EXTERIOR: Three storeys and attics, four windows. Ground floor has off centre stone doorcase of high quality. Six-panel door with arched head, surround with keystone and impost blocks. Ionic half columns with broken pediment over. Platband. To left of doorway replacement bow window of twenty-four panes, to right plate glass sash. First floor has two/two pane sashes with cornices and architraves, above architraved sashes of late C18 type, six/six. Projecting modillion cornice, parapet, partly cut down in front of two flat-topped casement dormers. Hipped mansard roof with large ashlar end stacks, with pots, some missing. Rear elevation altered and with later windows.
INTERIOR: The ground floor has been comprehensively altered, formerly containing modern Building Society premises, currently (2002) undergoing further remodelling. Otherwise not inspected.
HISTORY: This building appears on Wood's plan of area in his `Essay towards a Description of Bath', 1749. For many years it was well known as The Parade Coffee House, and as such was a building of considerable social prominence, located on this busy and public street. Early photographs show the elevation to be considerably altered: early in the 20th century the building was used as an apartment building, with an inserted door to the left of the main entrance, and a large bow window to the right, when the building was occupied by Crowbrow's India House, purveyors of 'works of art, antiques, curios' (National Monuments Record).
SOURCES: Architectural Review, XVII (May 1905), 102; Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bath: Bath: 1980-: 140; Mowl T and Earnshaw B: John Wood Architect of Obsession: Bath: 1988-: 54; Holland E: The Kingston Estate within the walled City of Bath: Bath: 1992-: 8.

Listing NGR: ST7518564708

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26674322

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

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings