Architectural Notes

Grand Pump Room Hotel 1901
Enlarge photo |  More about this photo

As a former resident of Bath I recall that this building was not particularly liked. In 1959 the hotel was demolished and a block of 33 flats at 1st, 2nd and 3rd floor level with shops at the ground floor was built. The quality of building work and the amenities of the building was exceptional and included electric underfloor heating beneath parquet floors in the main living room and an air extractor system to bathrooms and kitchens without external windows. The two side wings of the property housed lifts serving the three floors and also included very convenient rubbish chutes. There was also an entryphone system - a relatively new concept in Britain at that time. The rooms in the flats were well proportioned with 9' ceilings and large sash windows.

Because of the underlying geology of the area it was necessary to construct a deep and strong platform several metres below street level over which were constructed vertically doubled basements for the overlying shops. The lower basement of one of the shops was immediately above the outflow from the Hot Spring on the opposite side of Stall Street and an interesting side effect of this was that during the long and severe winter of 1962/63 the building was the only one in the immediate area which did not have its water supply frozen. Other local residents had to draw water on a daily basis from a stand pipe adjacent to the building on the corner of Stall Street and Cheap Street. I rented a bed-sitting room flat in the centrefront at first floor level that winter with a view of Bath Abbey identical to that enjoyed by thousands of guests in the rooms over the Grand Pump Room Hotel's portico.