Entire crescent of Bath houses with total value topping £50m goes on sale for the first time in 200 years (just think of that commission)

Entire crescent of Bath houses with total value topping £50m goes on sale for the first time in 200 years (just think of that commission)

• One of Bath's famous crescent streets features nine £2million plus townhouses and 20 apartments
• Street was bombed in Second World War and was nearly never built as funding dried up during Napoleonic Wars
• Some of the individual townhouses are already on sale for between £2million and £3million
  

By Phil Vinter

PUBLISHED: 10:28 EST, 30 May 2012 | UPDATED: 12:16 EST, 30 May 2012

They were nearly never built and suffered bomb damage in the Second World War but now for the first time in two centuries all the properties on one of Bath's famous crescents are going on the market.

'For Sale' signs are set to go up on each of the 29 homes on the eye catching curve of Grade I listed buildings on Somerset Place in Bath.

It’s thought to be the first time since the strip was completed in the early 19th century that an entire crescent has been made available at the same time.

Clean sweep: The entire length of Grade One listed Somerset Place in Bath is going on sale. A single buyer could purchase the 29 homes at 17 addresses for a cool £60million

The instantly recognisable architecture of the crescents are known around the world with thousands of tourists flocking to see the terraced properties every year.

In 2010 the most famous of them, the Royal Crescent, took second place in Google’s 'Britain’s Most Picturesque Street' awards, beaten only by The Shambles in York.

Now the Bath office of estate agents Savills is marketing 29 homes at 17 addresses on the street which is going through a restoration project due for completion in 2014.

Some of the nine individual five-storey townhouses are already on sale at between £2million and £3million, while there will also be 20 apartments created in the eight remaining properties.

Should agents Savills make just one per cent on the total sale of the 29 homes, expected to fetch at least £50million they will make £500,000 in commission alone.

Distinctive: Estate agents are beginning to market the entire stretch of Somerset Place in Bath which is going through a £60million refit

Historic: Somerset Place, built between 1790 and 1820 and last used by Bath Spa University, was bought in February by the Strategic Iconic Assets Heritage Acquisition Fund

Somerset Place, built between 1790 and 1820 and last used by Bath Spa University, was bought in February by the Strategic Iconic Assets Heritage Acquisition Fund.

Savills says: 'The crescent has survived as something of a time capsule, full of original Georgian plasterwork, fireplaces and original detailing, in need of sensitive restoration and modern comforts'.

'People with pockets deep enough to buy homes there will be able to call on a dedicated on-site concierge team, looking after the properties, gardens and what the agents describe as 'purchasers’ every need'.

The apartments will range from ground floor maisonettes with gardens, to upper floor maisonettes with roof terraces.

Perfect properties: The apartments will range from ground floor maisonettes with gardens, to upper floor maisonettes with roof terraces

Architect's drawing showing the separation between the different houses in Somerset Place. Numbers eight and nine, and 14 to 20 are all individual while all the others are maisonettes

Luke Brady, from Savills, said: 'Somerset Place is a one-off. It’s rare that crescent properties come to the market and nowhere else offers you the choice of nine individual crescent houses with planning permission consented.

'Purchasers looking to buy these at a developers finish will enjoy all the fun parts of designing a property with none of the headaches.

'You could pay £20 million for a crescent house in Notting Hill or £2 million to £3 million for one at Somerset Place, with 100ft private gardens, which I would consider great value for money.'

The City of Bath was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1987 and attracts more than one million tourists who book in to stay and another 3.8 million day visitors each year, drawn by its famous Roman spa baths.

The Georgians loved the regularity of Bath’s streets and squares and the contrast with adjacent rural nature, and the crescents were gradually built in response to the increasing number of visitors to the spa and resort town who required accommodation.

Architects John Wood the elder and his son John Wood the younger laid out the new quarters in streets and squares, the identical facades of which gave an impression of palatial scale and classical decorum.

Much of the creamy gold Bath Stone used for construction throughout the city was obtained from the limestone Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines, owned by Ralph Allen.

Allen, keen to show off his quarried limestone, commissioned the elder John Wood to build him a country house on his Prior Park estate between the city and the mines.

A many of more than one talent he was also responsible for improving and expanding the postal service in western England, for which he held the contract for over forty years.

For sales enquiries contact Savills on 01225 474500 for general inquiries contact 020 7554 3355.

HOW THE BUILDINGS HAVE STOOD THE TEST OF TIME: THE BRIEF HISTORY OF SOMERSET PLACE

Somerset Place was originally built between 1792 and 1800 with the initial idea to construct a much grander terrace of 20 houses.

A financial crash caused by the Napoleonic Wars at the turn of the 19th century meant  funding dried up before the project was finished and only Numbers five to 20 were completed.

In 1784 author Thomas Paine bought an area of land including Great Lydes to build houses overlooking Bath, although there is also evidence of Iron Age and Roman settlement on the area.

During the heavy bombing of the city of Bath during the Bath blitz in 1942, some sections of the strip were bombed.

Number 5 was completely destroyed and numbers 6 and 7 were so badly damaged that they had to be demolished for public safety.

Numbers 10 to 13, spanning the centre of crescent were virtually destroyed, although the entire front facade remained standing.

Numbers 8, 9 and 14 were also badly damaged and numbers 15 to 20 suffered slight damaged - all were repaired.

After the war, Bath Corporation bought the buildings for the Training College of Domestic Science, and Numbers 5 to 7 and 10 to 13 were rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s, specifically as College facilities rather than as dwellings.

There are a variety of styles and structures inside. Bath Spa University later took over the buildings and modified them further for their own use.

The entire crescent is Grade I listed even though the buildings are a mix of originals and rebuilt properties.

Numbers 15 to 20 have the Georgian garden walls in place, but others do not.

There are some 1950s outbuildings along St Winifreds Lane and in the gardens behind Numbers 5 to 13 which look out of place alongside a Georgian crescent, and these too are part of the original scheme.

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