page_title: Pulteney Bridge
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Pulteney Bridge / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: English: Taken by Erebus555. These are shops on the en:Pulteney Bridge in en:Bath, Somerset.
context_page_description: Pulteney Bridge crosses the River Avon in Bath, England. It was completed by 1774, and connected the city with the land of the Pulteney family which they wished to develop. Designed by Robert Adam in a Palladian style, it is exceptional in having shops built across its full span on both sides. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.
  Within 20 years of its construction, alterations were made that expanded the shops and changed the façades. By the end of the 18th century it had been damaged by floods, but it was rebuilt to a similar design. Over the next century alterations to the shops included cantilevered extensions on the bridge's north face. In the 20th century several schemes were carried out to preserve the bridge and partially return it to its original appearance, enhancing its appeal as a tourist attraction.
  The bridge is now 45 metres long and 18 metres wide. Although there have been plans to pedestrianise the bridge, it is still used by buses and taxis. The much photographed bridge and the weir below are close to the centre of the city, which is a World Heritage Site largely because of its Georgian architecture.
context_section_description: The bridge features two ranges of shops designed in the Palladian style c. 1770, between them forming a narrow street over the bridge. The street and buildings sit above three segmental arches of equal span.
  The shops on the north side have cantilevered rear extensions. Consequently, the northern external façade of the bridge is asymmetrical, much altered and of no architectural merit, whereas the southern external side clearly shows the hand of Robert Adam.
  Built of limestone, in classic Palladian style, the southern façade takes the form of a temple-like central bay with symmetrical wings connecting to two flanking, terminating pavilions. The central bay is given eminence by a broken pediment supported by austere Doric pilasters. It in turn is flanked by two small bays, each with a small pointed pediment supported by shallow pilasters, which further emphasise and complement the central broken pediment sitting above a large Palladian window – the focal point of the building. On this southern side the structure comprises a principal floor at street level, with a low mezzanine separated by stone banding above. Beneath the principal floor is a sub-floor constructed in the masonry between the spans of the bridge, its presence indicated by ocular windows placed symmetrically beneath the span of each arch. This ocular motif, on a reduced scale, is repeated symmetrically at mezzanine level beneath the central broken pediment. The two terminating pavilions, in reality slight projections, have shallow saucer domes concealed behind their pointed pediments. The roof is pitched and of Welsh slate.
  The western mid-stream pier was rebuilt in 1804. Further alteration took place in 1895, when the western pavilion was moved for the construction of the Grand Parade. The appearance changed yet again when the current weir, the scene of Javert's suicide in the film version of Les Misérables, was constructed between 1968 and 1972 as part of a flood-prevention scheme. Further restoration was undertaken in 1975.
caption: Shops on the north side
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