10 Marlborough Street, Lansdown
10 Marlborough Street is a Grade II late 18th century terraced townhouse situated in the Bath conservation area and World Heritage Site. It forms part of the ancillary setting of multiple Grade II individually listed buildings along Marlborough Street as well as the Grade I terraced St James’s Square. Whilst Marlborough Street is demonstrative of some architectural diversity, a similarity in boundary treatment is largely retained (with the exception of 11-12 Marlborough Street) with wrought iron railings and gates to facilitate basement access via the external front lightwell, although only several examples of functioning stepped access have been retained. 10 Marlborough Street retains its original gated access to the lightwell, although the steps have since been removed.
We therefore feel the principle of reinstating stepped access via the front lightwell would not result in any harm to the special interest of listed building, rather this is an opportunity to reinstate a lost architectural feature. However, we strongly recommend that appropriate, close-up stone and metalwork details of the new stepped access are provided in support of the proposal, before this application progresses further to ensure a high-quality design suited to the existing boundary treatment of a listed building. We additionally highlight the proposals to locate the steps in front of the basement windows, and ask whether this would necessitate the insertion of steel window bars as part of this application as a health and safety requirement.
We additionally suggest that the Officer asks for a clarification of works as described in the D&S Statement: “The existing railings are to be altered to facilitate the new opening and the railings are to be reused to form a gate.” Considering the retention of what appears to be an original gate at 10 Marlborough Buildings, we strongly recommend that this feature is retained as part of the proposal to ensure a continued visual homogeneity with the rest of the terrace (see 4 Marlborough Buildings).