Georgian 1700s-1830s
Bath comprises many many Georgian Houses. This relates not only to when they were built, but their distinctive style.
Most residents will recognise the typical characteristics of:
- cream-coloured Bath Stone, often as ‘ashlar’ [smoothly sawn]
- vertical [portrait] windows, usually sash-style
- classical proportions, often with parapet walls
- internal and external ornament
- original roofs normally slate
Victorian+Edwardian 1840s-1910s
Widcombe expanded considerably in this era, and house styles developed towards:
- ashlar Bath Stone often replaced with brick or coursed stone
- vertical [portrait] windows, often sash-style remain, with addition of casements
- proportions become lower and wider
- internal and external ornament continues, but often in a less classical style
- roofs continue to use slate, but some use clay tiles
1920s+1930s
House building following WW1 changed significantly:
- cheaper materials used for ‘homes fit for heroes’
- brick or block and render generally replaced stone, and cavity walls became common
- portrait-shaped sash windows, generally became horizontal casement-type
- classical proportions disappeared, along with much internal and external ornament
- this is often characterised as the era of the ‘3-bed semi’
1940s-1960s
Following World War Two, another period of house-building expansion ensued, although less in Widcombe than elsewhere. These houses were typically:
- of brick or rendered cavity wall construction
- with tiled roofs
- generally smaller and more uniform, wider [landscape] casement windows
- 2 storey – terraced, semi-detached or detached
- devoid of much internal and external ornament
1970s+Later
From the 1970s onwards, houses became slowly more energy efficient, in response to global energy crises and increasing awareness of climate change. The West Widcombe Calton Gardens / Holloway estate dates from this period, demolishing 18th- and 19th-century houses thought to be substandard. Built style develops more slowly, with:
- brick or render walls – with cavities
- tiled roofs
- generally uniform casement windows
- 2 storey – terraced, semi- or detached
- stripped of internal and external ornament, in a more ‘modernist’ style
