Sydney Gardens, Bath. Conservation Plan – DRAFT April 2018
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Sydney Gardens, Bath. Conservation Plan – DRAFT April 2018 A New Fetter Place 8-10 New Fetter Lane London EC4A 1AZ United Kingdom T +44 (0) 20 7467 1470 F +44 (0) 20 7467 1471 W www.lda -design.co.uk LDA De s ig n C ons ulting Ltd Registered No: 09312403 17 Mins te r P re cincts , P e te rborough P E 1 1XX Error! No text of specified style in document. Contents 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.2. Developing the Conservation Plan, and drawing up proposals. ................... 2 1.3. Links to other planning work, including activity plan. ................................... 2 1.4. Identified gaps and limitations in the plan. ......................................................... 3 1.5. Understanding the heritage (Historic Maps 1-11 & Images). ......................... 3 2.0 The Gardens today - Plan 001. ........................................................................................... 5 2.1. A brief description of each of the character areas. ............................................. 6 3.0 Timeline ................................................................................................................................ 10 3.1. A Note on Pleasure Gardens ................................................................................... 18 3.2. Historic development of Sydney Gardens ......................................................... 19 3.3. Table of Features: First appearance, and losses ................................................ 29 3.4. Summary of extant and lost features .................................................................. 34 3.5. Entertainments and Activities in the Pleasure Gardens ............................... 35 3.6. Historic management Summary .......................................................................... 35 3.7. Some notable people associated with Sydney Gardens ................................ 37 3.8. Heritage context ......................................................................................................... 41 4.0 Management Partners ....................................................................................................... 52 5.0 Statement of Significance ................................................................................................ 54 5.1. Defining & Assessing Significance ...................................................................... 54 6.0 Risks and Opportunities and Vision ............................................................................... 6 6.1. Risks................................................................................................................................... 6 6.2. Opportunities: ................................................................................................................ 6 6.3. Vision and Aims of the Restoration Project: ........................................................ 7 7.0 Proposals .................................................................................................................................. 9 7.1. Conservation Proposals .............................................................................................. 9 7.2. New work ..................................................................................................................... 13 7.3. Current Associated works ....................................................................................... 20 7.4. Access ............................................................................................................................. 21 7.5. Interpretation Proposals .......................................................................................... 22 7.6. Effects on the environment/Climate change.................................................... 22 Error! No text of specified style in document. 7.7. Heritage Management .............................................................................................. 23 7.8. Policy context .............................................................................................................. 23 7.9. Adoption and Review ............................................................................................... 25 8.0 Appendix ............................................................................................................................... 27 8.1. Appendix 1: Designations and WHS ................................................................... 28 8.2. Appendix 2: Historic England: Scheduled Monument Entry..................... 32 8.3. Appendix 3: Description of Historic England Listings .................................. 37 8.4. Appendix 4: HISTORIC FEATURES & ENTERTAINMENTS RECORD .... 74 9.0 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 82 10.0 Gazetteer ............................................................................................................................... 83 Version: Version date: April 2018 Comment DRAFT STAGE C This document has been prepared and checked in accordance with ISO 9001:2008. Error! No text of specified style in document. April 2018 Conservation Plan – DRAFT 1.0 Introduction This Conservation Plan (CP) has been written by LDA Design, with contributions from Bath and North East Somerset Council (BANES), to support the Round 2 application to the Heritage Lottery fund for a grant to fund a restoration project for Sydney Gardens, Bath. 1.1.1. Sydney Gardens – a summary description. Sydney Gardens is a 12-acre public garden (originally 16a) situated in Bathwick, a residential area to the north-east of the city centre of Bath. The Gardens are located to the rear of the Holburne Museum at the end of Great Pulteney Street. The Gardens are one of Bath’s oldest, and comprised C18th pleasure gardens with C19th alterations. Originally called Sydney Vauxhall Gardens, an homage to South London’s more famous, and eventually infamous, more formal and wooded Vauxhall Pleasure Grounds1. The original plans for Sydney Gardens were drawn up by Thomas Baldwin in 1791 and completed by Charles Harcourt Masters in 1795, when the Gardens opened in April ‘for walking’. The gardens were conceived as an integral part of the layout of Bathwick, designed for the landowner, the Pulteney family. The gardens officially opening on 11 May 1795 as commercial pleasure grounds charging an entrance fee. They rapidly became a popular place of entertainment, from the end of the C18th and through the early C19th, providing a site for public breakfasts, promenades, and galas during the season, from April/May to the end of September. The park was frequented by notable members of fashionable society, including from the Royal family and the author Jane Austen, who lodged at number 4 Sydney Place between 1801-4, amongst others. The form of the gardens is an unusual hexagonal, lozenge shape, and sited symmetrically within the plan of Bathwick as an endpoint to the vista from Pulteney Bridge. In contrast, the central layout within the gardens was informal, albeit with a strong central axis. These were surrounded by a wide ‘Ride’, rather than carriage drive, round the whole perimeter and separated from it by a wide swathe of rough 1 First mentioned by John Evelyn in 1661 as ‘a pretty contriv’d plantation’ then called New Spring Gardens, on Duchy of Cornwall land, and later Vauxhall Spring Gardens, laid out as a pleasure garden in 1732 which lasted until 1859 when it was entirely cleared for redevelopment. A much smaller remodelled open space remains as ‘Spring Gardens’ today. Error! No text of specified style in document. 1 April 2018 Conservation Plan – DRAFT pasture (Map 1). Much of the original network of paths, the areas of lawn and shrubberies, with many parts of the original planting layout remain largely intact (Maps 1-9, and ref. Debois Colvin Moggridge report 1993). From 1800 John Rennie’s Kennet and Avon Canal was built through the gardens and then the route of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway was cut in parallel, opening through Sydney Gardens in 1841. They both left a legacy of bridges that adorn the Gardens, and are the only Grade II* listed structures within Sydney Gardens. In 1891 the ninety-nine-year lease on Sydney Gardens expired and was purchased by the city of Bath in 1910 and re-opened to the public in 1913. The formal main entrance through the Sydney Tavern was severed from the Gardens when the building was first leased to Bath College and then subsequently sold to the Trustees of the Holburne Menstrie Museum. The Gardens contain some 20 listed structures within the original park boundaries (i.e. including the area around the Holburne Museum) and 16 listed structures within the current park boundary. 1.2. Developing the Conservation Plan, and drawing up proposals. The Conservation Plan (CP) plan has been written to address the poor condition of the Gardens and to inform a revitalisation of the gardens, funded by a lottery application. The initial concept, to RIBA stage 1-2, established some key principles for the restoration, and consultation during 2016 supported these. Further analysis of the gardens development over time since its creation, was carried out at RIBA stage 2/3 in 2017-18. The historic map regression identified when various features of the gardens were added or lost (refer to plans and illustrations section of the CP which