Flat 2, 1 Abbey Street, City Centre, Bath

1 Abbey Street is a Grade II mid-18th century terraced house, now with a shop at ground floor, situated within the commercial centre of the Bath Conservation Area and World Heritage Site. The building presents a significant 3 ½ storey, 5-bay formal façade in Bath stone ashlar onto Abbey Street, and forms part of an architecturally-matching group with the adjoining Grade II Abbey House, also likely attributed to Thomas Jelly. The focus of proposed works is to the rear exterior of the property, which overlooks Church Street further east; the character of this elevation is of a more informal and asymmetric appearance, reinforcing the eclectic character of later 19th century single storey additions along Church Street. These shop units are indicated to have been single storey by at least 1915, thus revealing the rear external wall of 1 Abbey Street in public views from Church Street, York Street, and Kingston Parade.

We recommend that the flue should be a cream or buff colour to be more recessive in colour against the Bath stone façade. Alternately a colour that matches existing examples of RWPs already in situ may be considered to ensure a coherent appearance and finish that does not detract from the elevation’s appearance in streetscape views. Where possible, we recommend any fixings or new openings are concentrated on the mortared joints between the stonework to minimise as far as possible the irreversible loss of historic stonework.

The flue is proposed to sit next to the first floor rear window above the sill, where this would be more clearly visible from the pavement. At this stage, we query whether there is any capacity for this to be positioned at a lower point or grouped with the existing RWPs below the window to maintain a cleaner appearance, although we acknowledge this would be dependent on how well this would connect with the proposed new internal location of the boiler.