The Slice, 3 New Bond Street Buildings

3 New Bond Street is a Grade II late Georgian building within the core of the Bath conservation area and World Heritage site. It therefore forms a significant element of a traffic and pedestrian highway through the historic city core, and is adjacent to streets of high historic and evidential Georgian value such as Milsom Street. Therefore, we assert the necessity for changes to shop fronts to adhere to an established, bespoke Bath standard to better enhance the Georgian architecture and plan form that is responsible for Bath’s Outstanding Universal Value.

BPT therefore supports the repainting of the shopfront. We encourage the regular maintenance of shop fronts to ensure a well-kept and high-quality traditional appearance, and the use of a blue colour scheme is preferable to the existing shop’s appearance as a more neutral option.

However, it appears that this scheme intends to utilise vinyl lettering in the same fashion as the existing scheme. We feel that this is an unsuitable and cheap material choice. We recommend traditional high-quality, bespoke shopfront materials and detailing that will complement and enhance listed buildings and their contextual streetscape, and favour signage in either timber or metal. We would encourage the use of a more traditional material over the vinyl lettering proposed, as this will create a low quality aesthetic harmful to Bath’s prevailing traditional character. The cumulative effect of inappropriate advertising risks harm to the appearance of Georgian architecture, which contributes to the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site.