Description

GROVE STREET
656-1/0/0 (East side)
No.16 New Prison
12/06/50

GV II

Prison, now apartments. 1772-1773 converted C20. By Thomas Warr Atwood. Builder: Richard Jones, an assistant to Ralph Allen.
MATERIALS: Limestone ashlar, roof unseen, with truncated stacks to returns.
PLAN: Double depth plan with rear additions.
EXTERIOR: Four storeys (originally three storeys and basement, road level has been lowered and former basement, now ground floor), symmetrical five-window range. End bays step slightly forward, slightly returned balustraded parapet, modillion cornice, moulded former first floor sill course, stepped former ground floor platband floor, deeply chamfered rustication to the former ground floor, basement platband, moulded architraves to nine-pane windows to former second floor. Six/six-pane sash windows with moulded architraves and pediments on shaped consoles to centre and sides of former first floor, flank similar windows with cornices, radial voussoirs to former ground floor with impost cornices to semicircular arched recesses to centre and sides that flank flat arches, six/six-pane sash windows. Former basement, now ground floor, has segmental arches to six/three-pane sashes and run out chamfered arises to plain opening and C20 door. Returns are plain.
INTERIOR: Not inspected; much altered.
HISTORY: Robert Adam prepared plans for this building in 1771, but the Corporation opted to employ its own architect, Thomas Warr Atwood, instead. His stolid Palladian design was outwardly dignified but internally ill-suited to its task. The site was ill-chosen, as the basement floor was prone to flooding. The foundation stone for the prison was laid in 1772 by the mayor. It was completed in 1774 and stood on its own amid fields until the surrounding Bathwick Estate began to be built up in the 1780s. The building originally had the entrance hall on the first floor, reached via an imposing flight of balustraded steps either side of an arch: the subsequent altering of the street level of Grove Street did away with these steps. The prison was originally for debtors and had comfortable rooms on the ground floor, with cells for the more criminal in the basement; a block of solitary cells was constructed behind in the courtyard. A new prison was opened in Twerton in 1842, rendering Atwood's gaol superfluous. The building was subsequently converted into use as flats in c1975, having served variously as a police barracks, a tenement building, and a hostel for the homeless. SOURCES: (W. Ison, `The Georgian Buildings of Bath' (1980 ed.), 86; Chris Noble: 'The new Gaol in Bathwick', Bath History IX (2002), p64-86).

Listing NGR: ST7519565147

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26674932

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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