Description

BROCK STREET
(South side)

Nos.2-18 (Consec)
(Formerly Listed as:
BROCK STREET (South side)
Nos.1-18 (Consec))
12/06/50

GV II*

Terrace of seventeen houses connecting the Circus to the Royal Crescent and backing onto Royal Victoria Park. 1763-1767 (Building leases for Nos 2-6); 1767-1770 (Building leases for Nos 7-18) with C19 and C20 alterations. By John Wood the Younger.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, double pitched slate roofs with dormers and moulded stacks to party walls.
PLAN: Double depth.
EXTERIOR: Three storeys with attics and basements. Some of the rears have attic storeys. Continuous coped parapet, modillion cornice, ground floor platband and plinth. Originally with pedimented doorcases on engaged Tuscan or Ionic columns. No.2 symmetrical five window range and stepped slightly forward with eroded cornice, moulded architraves to upper floors, painted splayed reveals to lower floor and cornices and lowered sills to first floor. Plate glass sash windows, projecting stone porch with Tuscan pilasters and broken pediment over set back six panel door. Sun fire insurance plaque. Nos 3 and 4 are symmetrical five window pair. No.3 has six/six pane sash windows with painted splayed jambs, two to second floor, two to first floor with lowered sills, that to left is Venetian with similar window below. To right double shallow enclosed porch, of C19 date, shared with No.4 with cornice, blocking course and six panel doors flanking two narrow central semicircular arched windows. To first floor blind window over party wall. In left angle lead downpipe. No.4 similar, reversed, with plate glass sash windows and lead downpipe to right. No.5 has two window range with plate glass sash windows. Tripartite window to second floor right above Venetian window with blocked top and painted splayed reveals. Enclosed porch to left has coped parapet and cornice. To right doorcase with Tuscan pilasters, five panel door glazed to top. Lead rainwater downpipe. No.6 has three window range with painted splayed jambs, six/six pane sash windows to second floor, tripartite to right. Plate glass sash windows with balconettes and lowered sills to first floor. Mid-C19 enclosed porch to right has coped parapet, cornice, fish scale pulvinated frieze on pilasters with Composite capitals flanking moulded archivolt over double three panel doors with oak leaf motifs to tops. Semicircular arched windows to returns. No.7 symmetrical three window range with painted splayed reveals and some crown glass. Two six/six pane sash windows to second floor, Venetian windows to outer ranges of lower floors, balconettes and lowered sills to first floor. Projecting pedimented porch with Ionic columns and five panel door glazed to top. Bath Sun Fire insurance plaque. No.8 has 2-window range with plate glass sash windows, Venetian to first floor and ground floor left. First floor have six/six 6 panes and lowered sills. To right, porch (similar to No.7 and others) is infilled with window. No.8 and No.9 are now one property, with the entrance via No.9. No.9 has windows to right similar to No.8, though first floor sills are not lowered and second floor window has balconette. Left hand bay covered by C19 three storey porch, modillion cornice and platband of terrace continue round it, coped parapet lower. Plate glass sash windows, Venetian window to second floor has returned cornice at impost level, triple semicircular arched windows with keystones to first floor. Banded rustication to ground floor with wide set back bolection moulded four panel door. No.10 has two window range with splayed reveals to six/six pane sash windows, two to second floor, Venetian windows to left of lower floors; to right nine/nine pane sash with lowered sill over projecting porch with Ionic columns and set back five pane door glazed to top with overlight. No.11 similar to No.10 in reverse. Plate glass sash windows, lowered sills to first floor and similar porch linked to that of No.10 by continuous entablature. No.12 has two window range with horns to six/six pane sash windows in splayed reveals, six/nine pane Venetian window with lowered sill to first floor left and enclosed pedimented porch paired with that of No.13 to right. This was John Wood the Younger's house. No.13 has two window range with painted splayed reveals and plate glass sashes to tripartite windows to upper floors and Venetian window to ground floor right. Porch similar No.12. No.14 has two window range. The ashlar front has been renewed. Splayed jambs to second floor six/six pane sash windows, tripartite sash to left, splayed reveals six/nine panes to first floor, Venetian to left. Substantial mid-C19 rusticated enclosed porch formerly three storeys, to right has coped parapet and platband over cornice with pulvinated laurel leaf frieze, moulded architrave to four panel glazed door to top and semicircular arched windows to returns. No.15 has two window range with painted reveals splayed to lower floors to plate glass sash windows. To second floor left a tripartite sash window, to first floor left a Venetian window with lowered sill and two horizontal panes to lower sash. Similar window below and five panel door in slightly projecting pedimented doorcase with engaged Ionic columns. No.16 single window range, stepped slightly forward and up with plate glass sash windows to two dormers. Tripartite second floor window and flat arched Venetian windows to first and ground floors. Lowered sills to first floor. To left is a notable Regency Gothick porch, very slender, with Gothick glazing to tall overlight over six panel door. Triple colonnettes with foliate caps and moulded bases to front edge, doorframe is set with diagonal square paterae. No.17 has two window range with horned plate glass sash windows six/six panes to the attic. Tripartite window to second floor. Painted splayed reveals to two tall windows and lowered sills to first floor and flat arched Venetian window to ground floor. Slightly projecting pedimented porch has engaged Ionic columns and five panel door glazed to top. No.18 right terminal stepped up and three window range with painted reveals. Two six/six pane sash windows to second floor, that to left is tripartite. First floor has six/six pane sash to right above platband and splayed reveals to two four/four pane sashes to left with original sill levels and small cast iron balconettes. Six/six pane Venetian window to ground floor left has splayed jambs. To right, door and projecting porch similar to those of No.17 and others, but painted. To left lead downpipe with good bell hopperhead, to right BROCK STREET carved into platband. West return has a central projecting bay, early Victorian in date, with traces of the former venetian windows that this erased visible on either side.
REAR ELEVATIONS: The raised street level results in a lower garden level, ensuring that the basement is a lower ground floor to the rear. The garden fronts of the terrace, overlooking Royal Victoria Park, have many additions, notably attic storeys, balconies and balconettes and a two storey canted bay to No.9 with railings over. Some garden fronts repeat the Venetian windows of the street front, namely Nos.3, 4,10,12. No.6 has a four bay garden front with a terrace at (upper) ground floor level. No.2 has an irregular, stepped-back garden front with a pentice at 2nd floor level to the left hand projection.
INTERIORS: Not inspected. 1945 photograph in National Monument Record of No.7 interior records double folding doors dividing drawing rooms, Greek Revival plasterwork to ceiling with rosettes, and a pair of marble chimneypieces decorated with bay leaf garlands. That of No.15 recorded by Bath Preservation Trust in 1996, when returned to single dwelling from previous flats conversion: fireplaces all renewed but plasterwork and joinery largely original. Open string wooden stair with two columnar balusters per tread, and columnar newels.
HISTORY: The south side of Brock Street forms an outstanding row of mid-Georgian town houses, situated between two of the finest architectural set-pieces of the C18. Its irregularities lend the row great appeal, and contrast markedly with the symmetrical perfections of the Circus and the Royal Crescent. SOURCES: W. Ison, The Georgian Buildings of Bath (1980), 23, 147, 231; N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol (1958), 130.

Listing NGR: ST7463565297

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17532325

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.

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