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Bath Attractions
Stroll around to see some of the buildings, crescents, and squares in town. John Wood the Elder (1704-54) laid out many of the most famous streets and buildings of Bath, including North and South Parades and Queen Square. His masterpiece is the Circus, built on Barton Fields outside the old city walls. He showed how a row of town houses could be made to look palatial. Fellow architects have praised his "uniform facades and rhythmic proportions." Also of interest is the shop-lined Pulteney Bridge, designed by Robert Adam and often compared to the Ponte Vecchio of Florence.
The younger John Wood designed the Royal Crescent, an elegant half-moon row of town houses (copied by Astor architects for their colonnade in New York City in the 1830s). At No. 1 Royal Crescent (tel. 01225/428126; www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk), the interior has been redecorated and furnished by the Bath Preservation Trust to look as it might have toward the end of the 18th century. The house lies at one end of Bath's most magnificent crescents, west of the Circus. Admission is £5 for adults, £4 for students and seniors, and £2.50 for children ages 5 to 16; a family ticket is £12. The house is open from mid-March to October Tuesday to Sunday 10:30am to 5pm, and November Tuesday to Sunday from 10:30am to 4pm (last admission 30 min. before closing); it is closed Good Friday and December to mid-February.
Free 1 3/4-hour walking tours are conducted throughout the year by the Mayor's Honorary Society (tel. 01225/477411). Tours depart from outside the Pump Room in the Abbey churchyard (look for the WALKING TOURS sign) Sunday to Friday at 10:30am and 2pm, Saturday at 10:30am; May to September, another tour is added on Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday at 7pm.
The Jane Austen Centre, 40 Gay St. (tel. 01225/443000; www.janeausten.co.uk), is located in a Georgian town house on an elegant street where Miss Austen once lived. Exhibits and a video convey a sense of what life was like in Bath during the Regency period. The center is open mid-February to October daily from 9:45am to 5:30pm, and November to mid-February Sunday to Friday 11am to 4:30pm, Saturday 10am to 5:30pm. Admission is £6.50 for adults, £4.95 students and seniors, £3.50 children 6 to 15, and £18 family ticket.
12 Results
- Museum
American Museum
Welcome to Britain’s only museum devoted to Americana (and yes, it's odd that they'd have one!). On display at the 19th-century Claverton Manor are quilts, folk art, Shaker pieces, and the other holdings from across the pond. Nearly 50 hectares (125 acres) of gardens, including a…Around Town
- Museum
Assembly Rooms and Fashion Museum
If the Assembly Rooms are not being used for a private function (they often are), you can stroll through the four elegant rooms that were the center of 18th-century Bath’s social life at a time when balls, card-playing, and gossip ranked high among life’s priorities. Downstairs, and…Around Town - Religious Site
Bath Abbey
Built on the site of a much larger Norman cathedral, the present-day abbey is a fine example of the late Perpendicular style. When Queen Elizabeth I came to Bath in 1574, she ordered a national fund to be set up to restore the abbey. The west front is the sculptural embodiment of a… - Museum
Building of Bath Collection
The city's Georgian and Regency architecture and interiors are the subject of this museum which details the crafts used in the course of construction of all the handsome townhouses you'll see as you walk through the city. The Collection also introduces the architects who contributed…Around Town - Museum
Holburne Museum
When this mansion was Bath’s most exclusive hotel, Jane Austen kept an eye on the fashionable clientele from her nearby house. Now the elegant rooms tell the story of Austen's time, showcasing fine silver, glass, and other decorative objects, as well as paintings by Joseph Turner,…Around Town - Museum
Jane Austen Centre
Alas, this museum is a rather dull affair. Text-heavy displays honor the life and work of the ever-popular Austen, but they do so in a fashion far wordier than the novelist herself. Austen visited Bath twice in the late 18th century and lived there from 1801 to 1806, drawing from…Around Town - Historic Site
Museum of Costume and Assembly Rooms
Operated by the National Trust and housed in an 18th-century building, the grand Assembly Rooms played host to dances, recitals, and tea parties. Damaged in World War II, the elegant rooms have been gloriously restored and look much as they did when Jane Austen and Thomas… - Landmark
No. 1 Royal Crescent
First-time visitors are blown away by the sweep and elegance of the Royal Crescent, a dazzling 30-house development that took some 7 years to complete, from 1767 to 1775. Its first house, which recently absorbed the old servant’s quarters in a massive restoration that religiously… - Landmark
Roman Baths
The Romans were the first to recognize the tourism potential of the natural hot springs, which bubble at a rate of 250,000 gallons a day. These steamy facilities were discovered in the late 1800s, and the restoration and accompanying museum are excellent. The Victorians mounted a… - Museum
Roman Baths Museum and Pump Room
In A.D. 75, the Romans channeled Bath’s hot mineral springs into a luxurious bathing complex that rivaled the baths in Rome. They're as impressive today, though there's no longer any bathing going on here. Instead, visitors stand on a viewing platform overlooking the large pool where…Around Town - Historic Site
The Pump Room & Roman Baths
Founded in A.D. 75 by the Romans, the baths were dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva; in their day, they were an engineering feat. Even today, they're among the finest Roman remains in the country, and they are still fed by Britain's most famous hot-spring water. After centuries… Victoria Art Gallery
This relatively unknown gallery showcases the area's best collection of British and European art from the 15th century to the present. Most of the works are on display in the sumptuous Victorian Upper Gallery. The collection includes paintings by artists who have lived and worked in…
Bath Shopping
Bath is loaded with markets and fairs, antiques centers, and small shops, with literally hundreds of opportunities to buy (and ship) anything you want (including the famous spa waters, for sale by the bottle). Prices, however, are comparable to London's.
The whole city is basically one long, slightly undulating shopping area. It's not defined by one high street, as are so many British towns -- if you arrive by train, don't be put off by the lack of scenery. Within 2 blocks are several shopping streets. The single best day to visit, if you are a serious shopper intent on hitting the flea markets, is Wednesday.
The Bartlett Street Antiques Centre, Bartlett Street, encompasses 20 dealers and 50 showcases displaying furniture, silver, antique jewelry, paintings, toys, military items, and collectibles.
Walcot Reclamation, 108 Walcot St. (tel. 01225/444404; www.walcot.com), is Bath's salvage yard. This sprawling and appealingly dusty storeroom of 19th-century architectural remnants is set .5km (a quarter mile) northeast of the town center. Its 1,858-sq.-m (20,000-sq.-ft.) warehouse offers pieces from demolished homes, schools, hospitals, and factories throughout south England. Mantelpieces, panels, columns, and architectural ornaments are departmentalized into historical eras. Items range from a complete, dismantled 1937 Georgian library crafted from Honduran mahogany to objects costing around £10 each. Anything can be shipped by a battery of artisans who are trained in adapting antique fittings for modern homes.
Near Bath Abbey, the Beaux Arts Gallery, 12-13 York St. (tel. 01225/464850; www.beauxartsbath.co.uk), is the largest and most important gallery of contemporary art in Bath, specializing in well-known British artists including Ray Richardson, John Bellany, and Nicola Bealing. Closely linked to the London art scene, the gallery occupies a pair of interconnected, stone-fronted Georgian houses. Its half-dozen showrooms exhibit objects beginning at £30.
The very upscale Rossiter's, 38-41 Broad St. (tel. 01225/462227; www.rossitersofbath.com), sells very traditional English tableware and home decor items. They'll ship anywhere in the world. Look especially for the display of Moorcraft ginger jars, vases, and clocks, as well as the Floris perfumes.
Bath Nightlife
To gain a very different perspective of Bath, you may want to take the Bizarre Bath Walking Tour (tel. 01225/335124; www.bizarrebath.co.uk), a 1 1/2-hour improvisational tour of the streets during which the tour guides pull pranks, tell jokes, and behave in a humorously annoying manner toward tourgoers and unsuspecting residents. The tour runs nightly at 8pm from Easter to October, no reservations necessary; just show up, ready for anything, at the Huntsman Inn at North Parade Passage. Cost is £8 for adults, £5 for students and children.
After your walk, you may need a drink or want to check out the local club and music scene. At the Bell, 103 Walcot St. (tel. 01225/460426; www.walcotstreet.com), music ranges from jazz and country to reggae and blues on Monday and Wednesday nights and Sunday at lunch and dinner. On music nights, the band performs in the center of the long, narrow 400-year-old room.
