What's the story, Georgian glory

A rare opportunity to own a townhouse on Bath’s famous Royal Crescent has arrived

- Penny Churchill

LAUNCHED onto the market in recent weeks at a guide price of £6.5 million through Savills (01225 474501), the exquisite, Grade I-listed 25, Royal Crescent, Bath, is one of only a handful of complete townhouses in single private ownership in this most prestigious of English addresses. The first crescent of terraced houses ever constructed in England, the Royal Crescent was designed by John Wood the Elder and built by his son, John Wood the Younger, who became Bath’s principal architect following his father’s death in 1754.

Between 1767 and 1775, Wood created the 500ft-long curved façade with its 114 Ionic columns. An ingenious sales concept allowed each original purchaser to buy a length of the façade and commission his own architect to build a house behind it to his own specification—thus what may appear to be two houses is occasionally only one. This novel approach to town planning, which contrasts an imposing, uniform, front façade with a mix of differing roof heights and fenestration at the rear— irreverently described as ‘Queen Anne fronts and Mary-Anne backs’—can be found in developments throughout Bath.

At 25, Royal Crescent, the original coach house behind the house has been cleverly converted to a three-bedroom, three-bathroom annexe with a large kitchen/reception room and independent access from Crescent Lane. The complex includes a double garage and a gated courtyard for off-road parking, with the original stables providing additional parking and outbuildings. Immediately behind the house is a raised terrace, with steps leading down to a lawn flanked by stone pathways and herbaceous borders. Beyond this, a ha-ha prevents animals grazing the parkland below from straying onto the more formal garden areas.