TRAVEL
Bath – Georgian Splendour
Bath is a confetti of Roman history and Georgian architecture contained within a compact, wealthy setting.
Bath is a quintessentially English town with historic Georgian architecture and all the delights that come with it – ability to peacefully walk around without too much traffic disturbance, ice cream parlours and the Roman baths.
Bath is a relatively compact city to navigate in a day whilst also being a base to visit other sights – we visited Glastonbury for a day.
What is striking about Bath is the symmetry of the architecture. Bath sets itself apart from other towns in how it has managed to largely hold onto that period image without too much twentieth century brutalist building to ruin it. It is simply pleasant to take a walk around the streets and absorb the style: its use of local golden-colored Bath stone, which gives the buildings a distinct appearance.
It is worth taking advantage of the Council’s free guided walks. The city is a UNESCO world heritage site and many of its most important buildings are grade One listed.
Our walk around the city firstly took us to Queen Square – a stunning listed set of Georgian houses. The building frontages are in the style of Palladian architecture. In the nature of Bath the buildings were then sub-let to individual builders to put up the rest of the buildings. The obelisk in the square was installed in 1738 in honour of Frederick, Prince of Wales.
The walk then moves on to the Circus, which is even more exquisite. From the square shape of Queen Square we admired the roundness of The Circus. The large prime example of Georgian architecture featuring Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns.
Finally, we arrived at the Royal Crescent – this time the crescent shape – half a circle sits higher up the hill with a view down a park looking over the city. This undeniably presents a dramatic setting. What is surprising is that only thirty terraced houses built between 1767 and 1774. There are 114 Ionic columns across the first floor of the houses with what is called in classical Palladian style, the ‘entablature’ above – the architrave. This closes off the column. As before the frontages are symmetrical but the builders who bought them were able to put up the rest of their house – or twin houses if they bought two.
It is impressive how the city has managed to retain its identity considering the main attractions were built in the Georgian era (1714-1830), when it became a fashionable spa town. All of the buildings which make up the square are Grade I listed.
We spent the afternoon in the Roman baths – this was for us a two hour visit. The Roman Baths date back to the 1st century AD with the tour being around a largely archaeological site with displays. This is probably the most iconic architectural landmark in Bath. There is little remaining of the original baths and tour focuses on recreating the whole site encouraging your imagination to understand the actual significance beyond the baths itself.
Finally, we walked down to the historic looking Pulteney Bridge. Built in the 18th century over the River Avon, it is one of only a few bridges in the world that has shops built into it on both sides. The curiosity of the bridge is that whilst walking on it, it does not feel like a bridge – you have to walk into a shop to see the river behind. The bridge’s design is reminiscent of the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy.
