Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 5 July 2017.

GREEN PARK (northwest side)
Nos. 20-30 (Consec)

12/06/50

GV
II
Eleven terrace houses. c1790-1805 with C19 and C20 alterations. Probably by John Palmer, architect.

MATERIALS: Ashlar, slate roofs, some pantile or double Roman tile.

PLAN: Large double depth houses with central valley, with slight break and some change in detail to Nos. 28-30.

EXTERIOR: Three storeys, attic and basement, each three windows, all sashes (except No. 21), mostly plain, with full width first floor balconies to Nos 21,22, 25, 26, 28 and 30, and separate balconettes to Nos. 24 and 27. Each house has two dormers. No. 20 has been carefully restored, with twelve-pane above eighteen and twelve, and blocked basement window. Panelled door has square overlight, and parapet balustraded. No. 21 has four-pane sash above deep French casements with transom lights, above four-pane, with plain to basement. Remaining sashes are plain, except twelve-pane top floor to No. 23. Twelve/fifteen-pane to No. 25, twelve-pane at second, ground floor and basement to No. 27, and twelve-pane to second floor No. 28. Also twelve-pane to basements of Nos. 22, 23, and 24. All doorways are to right, in deep reveals, to wide arches, with original panelled doors, with narrow side-lights, and decorative fanlights. Nos. 28 and 30 have narrower doors, without side-lights. No.30 has square transom light below fanlight.

All houses have rusticated ground floor, with bold keystones and voussoirs, under broad platband as sill to deep first floor windows, in which centre light has narrow architrave with pilasters to consoles and closed pediment. Nos. 28-30 also have sunk panels, centre one arched, to first floor windows. Lintel, frieze, cornice and blocking course to parapet, but blocking variously cut down in front of attic windows. Paired stacks to coped party divisions, and coped end gables with horizontal centre. Return to left has two paired sashes to attic, with horizontal parapet, above tripartite sashes at second and first floors, but outer lights blind in all cases, small lights have been inserted at centre. Ground floor has C20 hipped veranda on single or paired wood columns,over French casements with transom lights, and various plain sashes to basement.

Rear, mainly in coursed rubble, but with some ashlar work, has mainly plain sashes, staggered for staircases, and flat roofed extensions have been made to Nos. 20, 21, 24 and 26. Mainly slate roofs, with dormers, but pantile to Nos. 23 and 29, and to upper slope of Nos. 22 and 25.

INTERIORS: Not all inspected; now sub-divided. No. 20 was inspected by Bath Council in 1980. The cornicing is intact with triple arched cupboards either side of a modern fireplace. Original stairs and a niche for a stove in the hall.
No. 22 has a console fireplace with delicate brackets and good reeded cornices.
No. 23 has similar original cantilevered stone staircase with replacement handrail and cornices to No. 22.
No. 24 in 1985 had the main stairs with a fine mahogany handrail, Georgian hob grate wit sprays of flowers, good marble fireplaces on the first floor.
No. 25 in 1980 early C19 white marble fireplace and Victorian grate, hall with inner arch with elaborate soffits and fanlight over double doors. Fine reeded original fireplace with centre plaque with urn and snakes, and side plaque with sheaves of corn.
Part of No. 26 was recorded by Bath Preservation Trust in the 1990s. Extensively altered, the striking original central rose in the ground floor front room is five petals around five smaller inner petals. Stone cantilevered staircase with cast iron balusters and a floral insertion every fourth space.
No. 27 in 1972 has very ornate brown marble fireplace with Ionic pilasters to half height with standing figures, fine stone soffits moulding on cantilevered staircase.
No.30 was recorded by Bath Preservation Trust in 1995 has more original features. The kitchen has been completely remodelled, but the cellars remain beneath the road and there is a blocked up well. Arch in hall with central decoration of ears of corn and twining stems. There is a small cupboard built in behind the left hand split-shutter in the first floor rear room. Most of the ceiling roses remain, with acanthus designs.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: Each house has railing to basement area, on slight stone curb, and with gates to basement steps, not retained in all houses. Doors are approached over stone flagged landings carried on quadrant vaults, some with doors under. Simple iron overthrows to Nos. 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 29 and 30.

HISTORY: These houses were built over a considerable period with Nos. 5, 6 and 7 (now demolished) 'newly erecting' June 1794 (Bankruptcy of Isaac Fennell Bath Council minutes); while the building lease of 27 dates from 29th September 1802 (Bath Council minutes 18th February 1869).

Jane Austen lived in No. 27 Green Park (then No. 3 Green Park Buildings East) from 1804 until March 1805 with her parents and sister Cassandra after ending the lease of No. 4 Sydney Place. Jane had originally dismissed this place while on her search for accommodation in Bath in 1801. Unfortunately, Green Park was the scene of sad events for Jane: the death of her father George Austen in January 1805, shortly after the death of her great friend, Mrs Lefroy on 16 December 1804, Jane’s 29th birthday. From here Jane wrote to her brother Frank informing him about their father’s death. As a consequence of Mr Austen’s death, the income of the Austen ladies was immediately reduced and they were forced to move to cheaper accommodation in No. 25 Gay Street, Bath.

Nos. 1-19 were demolished following severe bomb damage in 1942.

SOURCES: (Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bath: Bath: 1980-: 178).

Listing NGR: ST7448864677

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

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26675056

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

• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)