Description

OLD ORCHARD STREET

Nos.16-20 (Consec)
11/08/72

GV II

Houses, with shop incorporated in No.19. Mid C18. Perhaps by John Wood the Elder, but probably by Thomas Jelly.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, rendered and painted to ground floor, with Welsh slate and pantile roofs.
PLAN: Double depth houses each three bays wide. No.20 now has five bays and may incorporate part of old No.21 which disappeared after reconstruction of rear of Nos 3 and 4 North Parade in 1887 (qv).
EXTERIOR: Three storeys, attics and cellars. Platband at first floor level to Nos 16, 17 and 19, at first floor sill level to Nos 16-18. All windows are sashes of late C18 type six/six, in plain architraves, first floor windows have entablatures. Doorways with pediments, panelled doors. No.16 has no door surround, and additional door to right. No.19 has small paned shopfront six x four. No. 20 has wrought iron railings. Modillion cornice, parapet, mansard roof with flat topped dormers to Nos 16 and 17 (Welsh slate), roof not visible to Nos 18 and 19, pantile mansard to No.20, with three flat topped dormers, six/six. Ashlar end stacks with pots.
INTERIORS: Not inspected.
HISTORY: These houses formed part of the uncompleted John Wood scheme for the Abbey Orchard, 1740-1748. The houses have very similar characteristics to the Thomas Jelly development of c1754 at North Parade Buildings (qv), and probably just predate them, No.20 may however be an earlier one. By 1800 they formed part of a group of public entertainment buildings: No.16 was once the Shakespeare Tavern (1809-1906), No.19 was the King's Arms in 1800, No.21 was the home of Charles Harcourt Masters, architect of the Sydney Pleasure Grounds and Hotel, and was where his model of the City of Bath was exhibited in 1789-1790.
SOURCES: W. Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bath (1948), 43;

Listing NGR: ST7518564646

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26675029

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

• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)