A rare unpolished Georgian gem

When I first started selling houses in Bath in the 1990s, a Georgian house in need of renovation would come along every six weeks. Now, it’s more like one a year,’ says Andrew Cronan of Strutt & Parker, for whom Christmas has come early in the shape of 7, Sion hill Place (right), one of a terrace of elegant Grade I-listed Georgian town houses built by John Pinch the elder in 1815.

Strutt & Parker (020–7629 7282) quote a guide price of £1.495m for the unspoilt Georgian gem, which stands in a quiet backwater on the upper slopes of Bath, with far-reaching southerly views over the city to the open countryside beyond.

For years, 7, Sion hill Place was the home of Bath campaigner Maj Anthony Crombie, who was horrified at the ease with which Georgian terraces were being demolished and replaced with poor-quality 1960s and 1970s buildings. Maj Crombie became a stalwart of the Bath Preservation Trust, castigating developers and estate agents alike over a period of 40 years. During that time, the society—represented in court by the major himself, in order to save costs—won a landmark planning-law case in 1990/91, which strengthened the protection of architecturally important conservation areas throughout the country.

Maj Crombie believed in practising what he preached, as his much-loved Georgian home reveals. It now needs complete renovation, Mr Cronan explains, although it still retains fine Georgian features, such as ceiling cornicing, full sash windows, impressive fireplaces and staircases.

Originally arranged as three dwellings, with lower-ground floor and top-floor flats, it now offers the chance to create a splendid family home on five floors, with a superb bay window overlooking the garden to the rear.