Partis College Chapel, Newbridge Hill, Bath

Sir George Gilbert Scott carried out another work close to Bath in Weston, just to the west of the city centre. This was at Partis College, which is a group of thirty almshouses built between 1825 and 1827, by the architect brothers, Philip and Samuel Flood Page. It is an amazingly imposing classical composition, considering that its purpose was to provide homes for women members of the Church of England. The centrepiece, which is flanked by the residents’ houses, is a six-column Ionic portico leading to a chapel at the rear. In about 1862 Scott completely reorganised the chapel by changing its orientation and adding a small apse. As with his similar works at the Camden Chapel in London and Hawkstone, he chose an Italian Romanesque style for his alterations to the classical building. Here he inserted a short three-bay nave with an arcade of neo-Corinthian columns supporting round arches with alternating voussoirs. Two light tracery windows were inserted on the east wall of the aisles. He also provided a varnished oak pulpit. Although he omits Bath Abbey, Scott was sufficiently pleased with Partis College to mention it in his Recollections, as he does with his limited work on Durham Cathedral.

Pevsner, N., North Somerset and Bristol, Buildings of England (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1958), p. 335.
Colvin, H., A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1995), p. 720.
Cole, D., The Work of Sir Gilbert Scott (The Architectural Press, London, 1980), p. 60.
Scott’s Recollections, II 82.