Ground Floor Maisonette, 11 Brock Street, City Centre, Bath

11 Brock Street forms part of a series of Grade II* mid- to late 18th century terraced townhouses by John Wood the Younger, situated within the Bath conservation area and World Heritage Site. It forms part of an important architectural connector between the Grade I Royal Crescent and Grade I The Circus. The proposed external works are concentrated across the building’s more informal and architecturally varied rear elevation, which positively contributes to Bath’s distinctive backland character. Whilst visible in conjunction with the rear of Margaret’s Buildings and glimpses of the curved rear of The Circus from Circus Place, the addition of later garages and ancillary structures conceals the lower half of the terrace as well as its residential gardens from public view.

In the light of the declared Climate Emergency, BPT is generally supportive of retrofit measures that protect elements that contribute to the special architectural and historic interest of a listed building; alterations are expected to be visually coherent with the character of the building, and the wider shared character of the two listed buildings and surrounding conservation area.

Considering the small scale and poor alignment of the lower ground floor rear windows, it is presumed that these are non-historic later interventions, although this should be clarified as part of the application.

Should the windows be confirmed to be of no historic interest, we consider this a positive opportunity for the implementation of thermally efficient retrofit measures with no loss of historic fabric. The windows are suitably concealed from public view and would therefore have a negligible impact on the appearance of the listed building or the wider backland character and appearance of the Grade II* terrace.

However, we maintain that existing and proposed sections should be submitted to allow closer assessment of the proposed change in glazing thickness and ensure that this is compatible with the special interest of a listed building. The proposed elevations indicate that the windows are to be “re-glazed with slimline double glazed units” and it is therefore assumed that the existing sash frames will be retained and reused?