1 Armes Court, Bath

Armes Court is a series of residential flats constructed in 1965, situated within the Bath conservation area and World Heritage site. It is situated to the rear of 3-12 Widcombe Parade, a Grade II late Georgian terrace that forms part of Widcombe’s local high street.
The Trust is supportive of proposed remedial works to improve the residential functionality of Armes Court. However, we have a couple of comments regarding the proposed materials and design of the renovation.

With regards to the proposed removal of the chimney stacks, we would recommend that these are retained to break up the continuous roofline of the terrace, and to allow for the separate buildings in the terrace to be visually distinguishable from one another, which would better reflect the traditional roof detailing of this region of the conservation area in historic terraces such as Widcombe Parade and Claverton Buildings.

We would additionally encourage the existing timber fascia and barge boards to be replaced like-for-like, rather than with modern materials such as uPVC, which will not preserve or enhance the appearance or character of the conservation area. We would add that timber remains a beneficial choice with regards to its longevity with regular maintenance and cleaning.