Queen Square was the first speculative development by Bath’s famed architect John Wood the elder. The palatial north façade was designed to give grandeur to the whole square. In reality a row of houses, the block was designed like a Palladian villa, with a central pediment. Giant Corinthian columns soar up two storeys with an air of lofty nobility. Wood himself lived in a house on the south side of the square, where he could gaze upon his handiwork. Now the leafy central garden blocks the view.