Norfolk Crescent | |
---|---|
Location | Bath, Somerset, England |
Coordinates | 51°22′57″N2°22′12″W / 51.38250°N 2.37000°W Coordinates: 51°22′57″N2°22′12″W / 51.38250°N 2.37000°W |
Built | c.1792 to c.1822 |
Architect | John Palmer and John Pinch |
Architectural style(s) | Georgian |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Cumberland House |
Designated | 12 June 1950 [1] |
Reference no. | 1395744 |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | 8–18, Norfolk Crescent |
Designated | 12 June 1950 [1] |
Reference no. | 1395745 |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
Official name | Watchman's Box |
Designated | 12 June 1950 [2] |
Reference no. | 1395748 |
Norfolk Crescent in Bath, Somerset, England was built between c.1793 and c.1822 and has been designated as a Grade II* listed building. [3] [4] The original design was by John Palmer, but minor alterations were later made by John Pinch. [1]
The Georgian terrace includes numbers 1 to 7, which have been converted into flats known as Cumberland House, and numbers 8 to 18 consecutively. Each has five storeys (basement, ground floor, piano nobile, second floor and attic) and the central portion has 6 Ionic pilasters. [1]
There is a green area in front of the crescent that was originally a formal garden for the residents, surrounded by railings. A small circular building in the corner of the gardens is the old watchman's hut, and is also Grade II* listed. [2] [5]
In March 1792 a solicitor named Richard Bowsher took a lease on 5 acres (20,000 m2) of land next to the river Avon at what was then the western edge of the city of Bath. [6] The lease stipulated houses of similar style and quality to those being erected in the nearby New King Street should be built on the land. [6] As with other Bath developers, Bowsher's sub-leased plots of ground to craftsmen, on the condition that they would build houses on them, which would subsequently be let out to wealthy families. Several streets were planned with over 100 houses, the centrepiece being a crescent called Norfolk Place (later changed to Norfolk Crescent [7] ). The architect John Palmer was engaged to designed a facade for the buildings.
However, in early 1793 a financial crisis, caused by the Bath Bank crash, brought disaster. Some of the builders went bankrupt and others were reluctant to take on new projects. [8] None of Bowsher's houses were complete, but he had to continue paying rent for the land. Nevertheless, he survived the crash and in the 19th century the development was scaled down to a reduced plan with two main streets, Norfolk Crescent and Nelson Place, and the short Nile Street linking to the Upper Bristol Road to the north. [9] These streets were named after Admiral Nelson, his home county (Norfolk) and his most famous victory to date (the Battle of the Nile, since the name was chosen before the Battle of Trafalgar was fought in 1805 [10] ). The proposed streets in front of the crescent were abandoned and instead the area was made into a formal garden for the residents of Norfolk Crescent and Nelson Place, with each house paying £2.2 annual rent for their upkeep. [9] At the corner of the railed gardens, where Norfolk Crescent, Nile Street, Great Stanhope Street and Nelson Place meet, a watchman's hut was built. The watchman's hut was built to a classical design inspired by the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. [11] The renewed scheme also saw a new architect, John Pinch, making some minor alterations to the design. [11]
Even after the reduction in scale the work progressed slowly. The houses in Norfolk Crescent were gradually completed and occupied, but the last house was not finished until 1822 - thirty years after it had been planned. [12] The houses in Nile Street and in Bowsher's part of Great Stanhope Street were built between 1810 and 1820, but the houses in Nelson Place were not started until later. [12] Nos. 1 and 2 were built as large houses (matching Norfolk Crescent) and the others were smaller, cheaper houses designed by Pinch but even using these houses it was not possible to complete the row. Thus, Bowsher's development was largely complete by the 1830s, albeit in a reduced form compared with the original plan.
John Palmer's plan for Norfolk Crescent had nineteen three bay houses (No. 16 Great Stanhope Street and Nos. 1-18 Norfolk Crescent) in an arc with a radius of 420 ft. [11] As was common with late 18th century Bath houses, the mansard roof with dormer windows was dispensed with, the facade instead stretching all the way up to the top of the houses, with a parapet above the attic windows. The two end houses were to have four Ionic pilasters on the main facade. The five central bays of the terrace were to have matching pilasters and a pediment in place of the attic windows. Nelson Place was to have a matching facade, but with a slightly longer terrace containing twenty-three houses.
At some point in the 19th century the design was altered, probably by John Pinch. [11] The pediment was moved to be above the attic storey, so that the attics of the central houses were not deprived of light. Palmer's plan had a carved tympanum in the pediment, but this was never made, probably due to a lack of funds. Pinch also added balconies with wrought iron railings on the piano nobile (first floor) of all the houses. The iron lamp holders over the entrances to Nos. 7 and 14 are also likely to be Pinch's work. [11]
Construction work on the houses in Norfolk Crescent (at the time still known as Norfolk Place) began in 1792 when builders first took leases on the various plots. However the building work soon stopped due to the financial crisis. [8] When construction work started again in the 19th century the market was much slower and the houses were completed gradually, when there was money available. For instance in 1817 Nos. 1–9, No. 14 and Nos. 16-18 were complete, but the intermediate houses were still not finished. [12] No. 11, the last house to be completed, was finished in 1822. [12]
From the 1830s porch extensions were added on to the front of many Georgian houses in Bath, [11] but this would have affected the visual balance of the crescent's facade, so it could not be done on Norfolk Crescent. However the owners of the two end houses (No. 16 Great Stanhope Street and No. 18 Norfolk Crescent), which had their entrances on the north and south ends of the crescent, did built full-height porch extensions on these houses without affecting the facade.
In 1942 during the Second World War an incendiary bomb landed near the crescent and the north end was gutted by fire. It was not repaired until 20 years later in the 1960s, when Nos. 1-7 were rebuilt with the same facade as the original. The mid-19th century porch extension to the end house was omitted in the reconstruction. Behind the facade, the reconstructed houses are a block of flats, not a replica of the original Georgian building.
Pulteney Bridge is a bridge over the River Avon in Bath, England. It was completed by 1774, and connected the city with the land of the Pulteney family which it wished to develop. Designed by Robert Adam in a Palladian style, it is highly unusual in that it has shops built across its full span on both sides. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.
Lansdown Crescent is a well-known example of Georgian architecture in Bath, Somerset, England, designed by John Palmer and constructed by a variety of builders between 1789 and 1793. The buildings have a clear view over central Bath, being sited on Lansdown Hill near to, but higher than, other well-known Georgian buildings including the Royal Crescent, St James's Square, Bath and The Circus, Bath. It forms the central part of a string of curved terraces, including Lansdown Place East and West, and Someset Place, which were the northernmost boundary of the development of Georgian Bath.
John Wood, the Elder was an English architect, working mainly in Bath.
The Portico Library, The Portico or Portico Library and Gallery on Mosley Street, Manchester, is an independent subscription library designed in the Greek Revival style by Thomas Harrison of Chester and built between 1802 and 1806. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed building, having been designated on 25 February 1952, and has been described as "the most refined little building in Manchester".
John Pinch was an architect working mainly in the city of Bath, England. He was surveyor to the Pulteney and Darlington estate and responsible for many of the later Georgian buildings in Bath, especially in Bathwick.
Great Pulteney Street is a grand thoroughfare that connects Bathwick on the east of the River Avon with the City of Bath, England via the Robert Adam designed Pulteney Bridge. Viewed from the city side of the bridge the road leads directly to the Holburne Museum of Art that was originally the Sydney Hotel where tea rooms, card rooms, a concert room and a ballroom were installed for the amusement of Bath's many visitors.
Amon Henry Wilds was an English architect. He was part of a team of three architects and builders who—working together or independently at different times—were almost solely responsible for a surge in residential construction and development in early 19th-century Brighton, which until then had been a small but increasingly fashionable seaside resort on the East Sussex coast. In the 1820s, when Wilds, his father Amon Wilds and Charles Busby were at their most active, nearly 4,000 new houses were built, along with many hotels, churches and venues for socialising; most of these still survive, giving Brighton a distinctive Regency-era character, and many are listed buildings.
Gay Street in Bath, Somerset, England, links Queen Square to The Circus. It was designed by John Wood, the Elder in 1735 and completed by his son John Wood, the Younger. The land was leased to the elder Wood by Robert Gay, MP for Bath, and the street is named after him. Much of the road has been designated as Grade I listed buildings.
Camden Crescent in Bath, Somerset, England, was built by John Eveleigh in 1788; it was originally known as Upper Camden Place. Numbers 6 to 21 have been designated as a Grade I listed buildings. The other houses are Grade II listed.
North Parade in Bath, Somerset, England is a historic terrace built around 1741 by John Wood, the Elder. Several of the houses have been designated as Grade I listed buildings.
St James's Square in Bath, Somerset, England consists of 45 Grade I listed buildings. It was built in 1793 by John Palmer.
The Paragon in the Walcot area of Bath, Somerset, England is a street of Georgian houses which have been designated as listed buildings. It was designed by Thomas Warr Attwood. It now forms part of the A4.
Trim Street in Bath, Somerset, England is an historic street, built in 1707, of shops and houses, many of which are listed buildings. It was named after George Trim who owned the land.
The buildings and architecture of Bath, a city in Somerset in the south west of England, reveal significant examples of the architecture of England, from the Roman Baths, to the present day. The city became a World Heritage Site in 1987, largely because of its architectural history and the way in which the city landscape draws together public and private buildings and spaces. The many examples of Palladian architecture are purposefully integrated with the urban spaces to provide "picturesque aestheticism". In 2021, the city was added to a second World Heritage Site, a group of historic spa towns across Europe known as the "Great Spas of Europe". Bath is the only entire city in Britain to achieve World Heritage status, and is a popular tourist destination.
Royal Crescent is a crescent-shaped terrace of houses on the seafront in Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. Built in the late 18th and early 19th century as a speculative development on the open cliffs east of Brighton by a wealthy merchant, the 14 lodging houses formed the town's eastern boundary until about 1820. It was the seaside resort's first planned architectural composition, and the first built intentionally to face the sea. The variety of building materials used include black glazed mathematical tiles—a characteristic feature of Brighton's 18th-century architecture. English Heritage has listed the crescent at Grade II* for its architectural and historical importance. An adjacent five-storey building, formerly the Royal Crescent Hotel but now converted into flats with the name Royal Crescent Mansions, is listed separately at Grade II.
Park Crescent is a mid-19th-century residential development in the Round Hill area of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove. The horseshoe-shaped, three-part terrace of 48 houses was designed and built by one of Brighton's most important architects, Amon Henry Wilds; by the time work started in 1849 he had 35 years' experience in the town. Wilds used the Italianate style rather than his more common Regency motifs. Three houses were replaced after the Second World War because of bomb damage, and another was the scene of one of Brighton's notorious "trunk murders" of the 1930s. The three parts of the terrace, which encircle a private garden formerly a pleasure ground and cricket pitch, have been listed at Grade II* by English Heritage for their architectural and historical importance.
Nelson Place West is a Grade II listed Georgian terrace of houses in Bath, Somerset, England. It was built as "Nelson Place" in the early 19th century, and the suffix "West" was added to avoid confusion with Nelson Place East on the other side of the city. The end houses have Ionic pilasters and there is a wrought iron balcony on the second floor of Nos. 2–8. These features match the adjacent Norfolk Crescent, which was built as part of the same urban development.
Nile Street in Bath, Somerset, England is a short street of Georgian houses linking Norfolk Crescent and Nelson Place West with the Upper Bristol Road.
Montpelier Crescent is a mid 19th-century crescent of 38 houses in the Montpelier suburb of Brighton, part of the English coastal city of Brighton and Hove. Built in five parts as a set-piece residential development in the rapidly growing seaside resort, the main part of the crescent was designed between 1843 and 1847 by prominent local architect Amon Henry Wilds and is one of his most distinctive compositions. Extra houses were added at both ends of the crescent in the mid-1850s. Unlike most other squares, terraces and crescents in Brighton, it does not face the sea—and the view it originally had towards the South Downs was blocked within a few years by a tall terrace of houses opposite. Montpelier was an exclusive and "salubrious" area of Brighton, and Montpelier Crescent has been called its "great showpiece". Wilds's central section has been protected as Grade II* listed, with the later additions listed separately at the lower Grade II. The crescent is in one of the city's 34 conservation areas, and forms one of several "outstanding examples of late Regency architecture" within it.
Corn exchanges in England are distinct buildings which were originally created as a venue for corn merchants to meet and arrange pricing with farmers for the sale of wheat, barley, and other corn crops. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley. With the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, a large number of corn exchanges were built, particularly in the corn-growing areas of Eastern England. However, with the fall in price of English corn as a result of cheap imports, corn exchanges mostly ceased to be built after the 1870s. Increasingly they were put to other uses, particularly as meeting and concert halls. Many found a new lease of life in the early 20th century as cinemas. Following the Second World War, many could not be maintained, and they were demolished. In the 1970s their architectural importance came to be appreciated, and most of the surviving examples are listed buildings. Most of the surviving corn exchanges have now been restored, and many have become arts centres, theatres, or concert halls.