Almost all the Georgian houses, many Victorian buildings and even some of the city’s telephone boxes and tombstones have been given listed status by the English Heritage organization, which can mean that something as small as a new door knocker must not be installed unless it harmonizes with the surroundings.
In fact, 66 percent of all Bath’s housing stock — estimated in 2001 to be about 70,000 households — is in a conservation area, with the result that the houses in Bath’s characteristic honey-colored stone are much sought after, particularly along the crescents, the rows of town houses that undulate gracefully along the contours of the hills above the city center.
It is rare that an individual house in such a “lofty, dignified situation” — as Jane Austen wrote of the Elliots’ rental in Bath in “Persuasion” — comes onto the market. But, remarkably, Somerset Place, which originally included 17 town houses, is to be restored in its entirety and sold.
“We think this is an extremely good result even if we do have residual concern about some mews houses that are being added at the rear,” said Caroline Kay, chief executive of the Bath Preservation Trust. “It was depressing when the crescent was not being used and even more so when work was delayed because financing seemed doubtful during the financial crisis.”
Luke Brady of the real estate agency Savills, which is involved in the project, is even more enthusiastic. “It is exciting — possibly the most exciting project I have handled. It is unprecedented and it won’t happen again, I’m sure. Nothing compares with it in Bath.”
Somerset Place, intended to rival the Royal Crescent, was designed by the Bath architect John Eveleigh and constructed between 1790 and 1820 with stone hewn from Ralph Allan’s quarries. The mason’s specialty was cutting blocks with crisp, clean edges to suit classical facades.
Construction was sporadic, interrupted by the Napoleonic War and the financial crash of 1793. And the four houses at the crescent’s western end were never completed, so the classical pediment meant to adorn the center of the crescent is now closer to the eastern end of the buildings.
Seven houses along the crescent were rebuilt after a World War II bombing, and in more recent years the entire terrace was taken over by a university that adapted the buildings to its use, knocking holes through walls and pulling out fireplaces.
Stephen Green, director of Future Heritage, one of the two developers involved in Somerset Place, shares Mr. Brady’s enthusiasm for the project, which is scheduled to be completed by 2014. “It is amazing to think of 90,000 square feet of Grade 1-listed building coming on to the market, many with their original features such as the cornices, marble fireplaces and cantilevered staircases,” he said.
The cost of the redevelopment is expected to be £60 million, or $94 million, which will include the restoration of nine town houses, the creation of 20 apartments and, tucked in behind, six modern mews houses.
A sale date has not been determined. But the town houses along the crescent are to range from 3,100 to 5,700 square feet each, with prices starting at about £2 million.
“One beneficial legacy of the bombing — if one can call it that — is that the ’50s houses are not subject to restrictions on the work inside,” Mr. Green said. “That has given us the opportunity to develop duplexes on ground level which open on to the long, walled — and very neglected — gardens, and upper apartments which will have roof gardens. Sandwiched in between will be 2,800-square-foot lateral apartments.”
The apartments are expected to be priced from £1.4 million to £2.5 million. And like all the properties, they will have tall sash windows with views of the communal park at the front, through the oak trees and over the roofs of the city to the valley of the River Avon and the low hills beyond. Each residence is to have its own parking and there will be an on-site concierge team to help residents.
Mr. Brady notes that Bath, which is not far from the M4 highway and only about an hour and a half from London by train, offers good value in comparison to the British capital’s heated real estate market. “You could pay £20 million for a crescent house like this in London’s Notting Hill,” he said.
Unusually, the properties will be sold as “shell and core,” so the buyers will be able to customize the interiors as they like.
This will be history repeating itself: The exteriors of the original houses along the crescent were planned by the City Corporation — right down to a ban on drainpipes — but the masons and carpenters chosen to finish the insides were given a free hand.
Take Number 15, whose first lease owner was one Joseph Beale. He proudly incorporated two imposing columns in the main living room, while next door in Number 16, James Beale — perhaps a competitive brother — built an arch.
“It’s up to the owner to make the best of what is there,” Mr. Brady said. “How dull it would be if every kitchen was the same.”
Sandy Mitchell, founder and director of the RedBook Agency, a West Berkshire company that helps with restorations and is a partner in the project, agreed with Mr. Brady, adding, “This is an extraordinary blank canvas. It is very rare to have Grade 1-listed properties in such sound condition.”
But he also noted that it will be a challenge to finish such historic homes properly, noting that services like his add £200 to £300 a square foot to the basic cost.
“My instinct is that this development is a major step forward for Bath,” he said. “I think it will attract the high end of the market, drawing in a different type of buyer, maybe even from abroad.”