16 Lansdown Crescent, Lansdown, Bath

16 Lansdown Crescent forms part of a Grade I late 18th century crescent terrace of townhouses by John Palmer, situated within the Bath conservation area and World Heritage Site. Lansdown Crescent is one of Bath’s formative examples of monumental Georgian design and town planning in its scale, implementation of Palladian architectural principles, coherent use of material vernacular, and picturesque setting. Consequently, it strongly contributes towards the Georgian town planning and architectural OUV of the World Heritage Site, and forms an important aspect of a highly significant ensemble of formal Georgian townhouses to the north of the city centre.

There is currently some visual variety in the treatment of the lower ground floor lightwells, with a mix of painted and unpainted examples evident across the terrace.
BPT welcomes the opportunity for the removal of non-historic paint from the lower ground floor of 16 Lansdown Crescent, and the return to its natural Bath stone ashlar appearance. We feel this would reinstate the homogenous material appearance of the listed building and consequently the setting of the wider terrace. We are supportive of passive methods for damp management and acknowledge that the removal of the external paintwork would enable the permeable stonework to ‘breathe’.

We note the potential to identify issues with the stonework during cleaning and trust that this will be repaired where appropriate and with the necessary consent.
We encourage the inclusion of the removal of paint from the lower ground floor window reveals as part of the proposed works.

We note that there is some incongruity with regards to the proposed resurfacing works in the rear courtyard. The D&A Statement indicates a “timber finish to be confirmed”, whereas the Proposed Basement Plan shows “new pennant flooring to replace existing concrete slabs”. We recommend that this variance is reconciled, and indicate a preference for pennant flooring of an appropriate stone sample and finish to match the existing, traditional flooring finish currently seen in the front lightwell.