It’s all symmetry and golden hues in the English city of Bath, which offers a heady mix of architecture, art and views. In addition to its Georgian limestone crescents, it is backdropped by Somerset hills and has many landscaped parks and must-see outlying villages. It was also the home of Jane Austen and the setting for two of her novels, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey.
Here are five Bath properties on the market right now, including a daringly dark hillside townhouse in Camden and a former Greek temple style toll house with a riverside perch in Bathwick. All attest to the ancient city’s architectural diversity and pedigree and feature postcard views.
Grade I-listed classic Bath stone townhouse
4 bedrooms; £1.95m via Knight Frank
This restored Walcot townhouse is the crème de la crème of Georgian Bath architecture, being designed by the man responsible for turning Bath into an architectural marvel, John Wood the Elder, in 1735 and finished by his son, John Wood the Younger, in 1785. It feels effortlessly modern, too, through its patterned wallpapers, repaired wide floorboards and heritage paint hues. The Gay Street property centres around a galleried staircase lit by vintage lighting, and its pale pink kitchen has a range cooker fitted into a stone vault.
Inky-hued 1700s house remodelled in Adam style
4 bedrooms; £1.45m via Tim Bennett and Associates
Packed with vampy reds, pistachio hues and dark wood, this theatrical Camden Georgian house is a gothic dream: you can easily imagine a frock-coated Lord Byron penning his odes beside rain-lashed windows here. The hillside period townhouse was substantially remodelled in 1794 by John Palmer in neoclassical Adam style, with a bow façade facing south to capture elevated Bath views. It has a stone staircase twisting up to a steeply pitched attic room that houses a music recording studio and decadent boudoir.
A Grade II-listed house with traditional country charm
4 bedrooms; £1.275m via Carter Jonas
Home restoration fans will love this grand, diamond-in-the-rough stone house. The Miles’s Buildings property is nestled in a peaceful, stone-paved enclave in central Bath. Beneath its 1990s chintz, beige carpets, and lino flooring are impeccable Georgian bones with wooden window shutters, open fireplaces, and a carved cantilevered staircase climbing three storeys. It has the unique charm of having a wrought-iron balcony off the first-floor library, which is flooded with light. Other perks include a suntrap stone terrace, an artist’s studio/bedroom, and a charming raised walled garden.
Victorian-era toll house beside Cleveland Bridge
2 bedrooms; £550,000 via Winkworth
This converted stone Bathwick house is one of four toll houses on Cleveland Bridge, designed to resemble Greek temples. The 1827 house is larger than it looks from pavement level, being formed of two living spaces and two bedrooms spanning over three levels. Its roof, which extends over the pavement, is supported by Corinthian columns and a pediment. Inside, there’s a freestanding wooden kitchen with exposed stone walls and high ceilings, and it’s full of natural light. Pale blue double wooden doors open onto a raised terrace set beside the grade II* listed iron bridge under the river Avon flows.
Early 19th-century apartment with original ’25 light’ sash windows
2 bedrooms; £575,000 via Inigo
This Daniel Street Georgian apartment sits across the main floors of a converted townhouse in the renowned Pulteney Estate, beside the canal-crossed Sydney Gardens. It has the rare, original “25-light” sash windows (composed of 15 panes and ten margin panes), creating “brilliantly” bright spaces. The elegant property has interior arches, curved recesses and an oval staircase bannister, which sits centrally between the living room and the kitchen. It was designed by John Pinch the Elder, who created many of Bath’s later Georgian buildings and Babington House in Somerset.
