Description

PORTLAND PLACE
656-1/30/1260 (North side)

Nos.1-10 (Consec) (Formerly Listed as: PORTLAND PLACE (North side) Nos 1-10 (consec) (Nos 4 & 5 Hermitage House School))
12/06/50

GV II*

Ten symmetrical terrace houses. 1786. By John Eveleigh.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, double pitched slated mansard roofs with dormers and moulded stacks to party walls.
PLAN: Double depth plans.
EXTERIOR: Three storeys with attics and basements. Each house four-window range (No.5 to centre five-window range). Formerly with oval openings in continuous coped parapet, modillion cornice and lintel frieze, continuous sill bands to the upper floors, platband and plinth, six/six-pane sash windows and eight-panel doors (all retained) with cobweb fanlights. Ends and centre step slightly forward, centre pedimented. Nos 1-4 have doors to right, Nos 6-10 have doors to left. Many of the parapets have been altered. No.1 has horns to windows. No.2 has horns to windows, painted splayed reveals to first and ground floors, and plain fanlight. No.3 has painted reveals to horned plate glass sash windows, balconettes to first floor and good scrolled overthrow and lampholder to railings. No.4 has splayed reveals, two/two-pane sash windows with horizontal glazing bars to second floor, horns to plate glass sash windows to rest and plain fanlight. Hermitage House School until 1994, but has now been converted to flats. No.5 central three ranges of five step forward with rusticated quoins and pediment. Central door has semicircular Gibbs surround and cobweb fanlight. First floor has lowered sills to C19 three-pane French windows with overlights and four horizontal bars instead of balconettes. Ranges to sides have quoins rusticated up to platband Nos 6-8 have added attic storey. House fitted by CE Davis in 1875 as Bath High School. It later became Hermitage House School together with No.4, but both were converted to flats in 1994. No.6 has painted splayed reveals and horns to six/six-pane windows, a fine Regency cast iron balcony to first floor with swept canopy and semicircular arches between piers, and plain fanlight. No.7 has horizontal glazing bars to two/two-pane sashes to attic, six/six-pane sashes to second floor, horned plate glass sashes to first and ground floors, and cobweb fanlight. No.8 has painted splayed reveals to horned plate glass windows, trellised balconettes to first floor and cobweb fanlight. No.9 painted to ground floor with painted reveals to horned plate glass windows, balconettes to first floor and scrolled overthrow similar to that of No.3. No.10, right terminal, has six/six-pane sashes without horns, lowered sills and six/six-pane sashes to first floor with four horizontal bars instead of balconettes and cobweb fanlight.
INTERIORS: Not inspected.
HISTORY: Developed in conjunction with Burlington Street (qv) by John Hensley; Nos 12-15 Burlington Street, Nos 1-4 Portland Place and Nos 17-20 Portland Place on leasehold land demised to John Hensley 30 March 1782 for three lives by legatees of Morford's Estate and let out on building leases 25 March, 24 June and 31 October 1785; East side of Burlington Street and Portland Place on freehold land belonging to Hensley conveyed to Hensley and William Phillips by Duperee family 1 and 2 January 1772 and then by lease and release 23 and 24 June 1783 from Hensley, Phillips and their trustee to Daniel Tanner as trustee for Hensley alone. A palace-fronted terrace, 300 ft in length and imposingly raised on low podium with central obelisks. This is a Neoclassical version of the north front of Queen Square, but executed in Eveleigh¿s characteristically refined manner. It takes full advantage of the sloping site, and its monumentality is accentuated by the triangular opening to Burlington Street in front. The large central house was built for one P.C. Crespigny; other houses were built for Cross, banker of Bath.
SOURCES: Ison W: The Georgian Buildings of Bath: Bath: 1980-: 161; Hensley Family Papers: BUNDLES 16 AND 47.

Listing NGR: ST7473665653

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q68191683

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

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  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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