Description

GAY STREET
(East side)

Nos.35-40 (Consec)
(Formerly Listed as: GAY STREET Nos.
31-40 (Consec))
12/06/50

GV II

Six irregular terrace houses, now shops, restaurant and offices, stepped downhill from No. 35 to left. 1735-1740, with C19 and C20 alterations. By John Wood the Elder.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, slate mansard roofs with dormers and moulded stacks to party walls.
PLAN: Double depth plans.
EXTERIOR: Three storeys with attics and basements. Nos. 35 and 36, each three-window range, are continuous pair higher than adjacent houses. Slightly returned coped parapet, stopped cornice, moulded architraves to upper floors, those to first floor with sill band, cornices and lowered sills, steps up to doors to left with raised surrounds and pediments on consoles. No. 35 has six/six-pane sash windows to second floor where architraves have been removed, lowered sills to six/nine-pane sashes with balconettes to first floor and cornice to fascia of 1902 shop to right. No. 36 has plate glass sash windows in moulded architraves, those to first floor with lowered sills and painted architraves. Cornice and pulvinated frieze without pediment over door and 1907 shop by F.W. Gardiner, similar to that of No. 35. Nos. 37-40, are similar to Nos. 35 and 36, are level at parapet and cornice, and step downhill from left. No. 37 has plate glass sash windows with splayed jambs, balconettes to first floor and pedimented moulded architrave with pulvinated frieze to six-panel door glazed to top, to left. To right lead downpipe. No. 38 has plate glass sash windows, lowered sills to first floor and ground floor painted below remaining parts of first floor sill band. To left seven-panel door glazed to top in moulded architrave with dentil cornice and pediment on fluted consoles. To right two windows in plain openings with cornices. No. 39, now restaurant, has moulded architraves to upper floor windows and splayed reveals to eight-panel door to left. To centre C20 door. No. 40 has painted splayed reveals to plate glass sash windows, lowered sills to first floor, and pedimented doorcase to left with dentil cornice and pulvinated frieze supported by Ionic pilasters on pedestals. Rear elevations not seen.
INTERIORS: Not inspected, except for No. 38 inspected by Bath Council in 1980¿s. Old kitchen with Tudor arch recess. Open tread wooden staircase , round tapered newels, well. Semi¿circular bay to half landing.
HISTORY: The ground lease for these houses was taken by John Wood 13th October 1734, and the building leases were granted between 1734-1738. No. 40 was first rated in 1736, and all were occupied in 1740. This is the least cohesive and most altered stretch of Gay Street, hence its lower grade than the other sections.
SOURCES: (Mowbray Green, `The Eighteenth Century Architecture of Bath (1904), 140-143; Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bath: Bath: 1980: 120; Finch G: Shopfront Record, Bath City Council: 1992).

Listing NGR: ST7482665081

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26674667

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

• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Farrow & Ball How to Decorate: Transform your home with paint & paper
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  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)