Queen Square (Bath) - Development

Development

Queen Square is a key component of Wood's vision for Bath. Named in honour of Queen Caroline, wife of George II, it was intended to appear like a palace with wings and a forecourt to be viewed from the south side:

• North side: No's 21-27 make up the north side, which was described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the finest Palladian compositions in England before 1730".
• West side: the west side (numbers 14–18 and 18A, 19 & 20) was designed by John Pinch in 1830 and differs from Wood's original design as the central block is in Neo-Grecian style.

Wood wrote that:

He understood that polite society enjoyed parading, and in order to do that Wood provided wide streets, with raised pavements, and a thoughtfully designed central garden. The formal garden was laid out with gravel pathways, low planting and was originally enclosed by a stone balustrade. The current railings date from 1978, a replica of the pre-WW2 originals.

With the Palladian buildings at Queen Square, Wood “set fresh standards for urban development in scale, boldness and social consequence.” The elegant and palatial north façade of seven individual townhouses, with emphasis only on the central house to suggest a grand entrance, is heralded as Wood’s greatest triumph, but the other three wings purposefully act as foils to this ostentatious palace front. The east and west sides of the square are the wings of the ‘palace’, enclosing a forecourt. Wood undoubtedly took his inspiration from Inigo Jones’s Covent Garden piazza (1631-7) in London and perhaps Dean Aldrick’s Peckwater Quadrangle at Christ Church, Oxford (1706-10).