Sights in Bath
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No 1 Royal Crescent
Superbly restored to the minutest detail of its 1770 magnificence, the grand Palladian town house No 1 Royal Crescent is well worth visiting to see how people lived during Bath's glory days; staff dressed in period costume complete the effect.
The crowning glory of Georgian Bath and the city's most prestigious address, Royal Crescent, is a semicircular terrace of magnificent houses decorated with a continuous façade of Ionic columns. Designed by John Wood the Younger (1728-82) and built between 1767 and 1775, the houses would have originally been rented by the season by wealthy socialites.
A walk along Brock St leads to The Circus, a magnificent circle of 30 houses. Plaq…
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Bath Abbey
King Edgar was crowned in a church in Abbey Courtyard in 973 – though he had ruled since 959 – but the present Bath Abbey was built between 1499 and 1616, making it the last great medieval church raised in England. The nave's wonderful fan vaulting was erected in the 19th century.
Outside, the most striking feature is the west facade, where angels climb up and down stone ladders, commemorating a dream of the founder, Bishop Oliver King. Among those buried here are Sir Isaac Pitman, who devised the Pitman method of shorthand, and Beau Nash.
On the abbey's southern side, the steps lead down to the small Heritage Vaults Museum , which explores the abbey's history and its l…
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Circus
Inspired by the Roman Colosseum, the Circus is another Georgian masterpiece of Wood the Elder's design. Arranged over three equal terraces, the 30 mansions overlook a garden populated by plane trees; a German bomb fell into the square in 1942 and demolished several houses, although they've since been rebuilt in seamless style. Look out for plaques to Thomas Gainsborough, Clive of India and David Livingstone, all former Circus residents.
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Museum of Costume
In the basement is the Museum of Costume, which houses a huge wardrobe of vintage outfits including some lavish 18th-century embroidered waistcoats, a collection of 500 handbags and several whalebone corsets which are, frankly, alarming.
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Roman Baths
Ever since the Romans arrived in Bath, life in the city has revolved around the three natural springs that bubble up near the abbey. In typically ostentatious style, the Romans constructed a glorious complex of bathhouses above these thermal waters to take advantage of their natural temperature – a constant 46°C. The buildings were left to decay after the Romans departed and, apart from a few leprous souls who came looking for a cure in the Middle Ages, it wasn't until the end of the 17th century that Bath's restorative waters again became fashionable.
The 2000-year-old baths now form one of the best-preserved ancient Roman spas in the world. The site gets very, very bu…
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Thermae Bath Spa
Larking about in the Roman Baths might be off the agenda, but thankfully you can still sample the city's curative waters at the Thermae Bath Spa. Incorporating the old Cross Bath into a shell of Georgian stone, stainless steel and plate glass, the ferociously modern building has ruffled the feathers of many Bathonian purists, but whatever you make of the architecture, the hot springs themselves are a treat.
Packages range from a dip in one of the heated pools (choose from the Cross Bath or the New Royal Bath, which includes a choice of pools, steam rooms and waterfall shower) to exotic treatments including peat baths, body cocoons, Vichy showers and the ominous-sounding '…
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Jane Austen Centre
Bath is known to many as a location in Jane Austen's novels. Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were both largely set in the city; the writer visited it many times and lived here from 1801 to 1806. The author's connections with the city are explored at the Jane Austen Centre, where displays also include period costume and contemporary prints of Bath.
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Herschel Museum of Astronomy
In 1781 astronomer William Herschel discovered Uranus from the garden of his home, now converted into an intriguing museum. The house is decorated as it would have been in the 18th century; an astrolabe in the garden marks where Herschel would have placed his telescope.
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American Museum
Britain's largest collection of American folk art, including Native American textiles, patchwork quilts and historic maps, is housed in a fine mansion a couple of miles from the city centre; catch the number 18/418/U18 from the bus station.
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Assembly Rooms
Opened in 1771, the city's glorious Assembly Rooms were where fashionable Bath socialites once gathered to waltz, play cards and listen to the latest chamber music. You're free to wander around the rooms, as long as they haven't been reserved for a special function. Highlights include the card room, tearoom and the truly splendid ballroom, all of which are lit by their original 18th-century chandeliers. The Assembly Rooms were all but gutted by incendiary bombs during WWII but have since been carefully restored.
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Holburne Museum
Sir William Holburne, the 18th-century aristocrat, aesthete and art fanatic, amassed a huge collection, which now forms the Holburne Museum , beautifully situated in the tree-shaded Sydney Gardens. Works by Turner, Gaudi, Stubbs and Thomas Gainsborough litter the palatial rooms, supplemented by a hoard of majolica, porcelain and portrait miniatures (look out for one of Beau Nash).
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Building of Bath Museum
This architectural museum details how Bath's Georgian splendour came into being, tracing the city's evolution from a sleepy spa town to one of the centres of Georgian society. There are some displays on contemporary construction methods, and the museum also explores the way in which social class and interior decor were intimately linked during the Georgian era; heaven forbid should you use a wallpaper that outstripped your station…
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Victoria Art Gallery
The city's main arts collection. There are some particularly fine canvases by Gainsborough, Turner and Sickert, as well as a wonderful series of Georgian caricatures from the wicked pens of artists such as James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson.
The 18th-century Holburne Museum at the end of Great Pulteney St is undergoing restoration until 2012.
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Museum of East Asian Art
Bath's Asian arts museum contains more than 500 jade, bamboo, porcelain and bronze objects from Cambodia, Korea and Thailand, and substantial Chinese and Japanese carvings, ceramics and lacquerware.
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Bath Visitor Centre
Across the street from the Thermae Bath are treatment rooms above the old Hot Bath, while the Hetling Pump Room houses a Bath Visitor Centre exploring the history of Bath bathing.
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Georgian Garden
To the south of the Circus is the restored Georgian Garden, with formal terraces, period plants and gravel walkways, tidied everyday using an original 19th-century roller.
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Vaults Heritage Museum
On Bath Abbey's southern side, the Vaults Heritage Museum contains fine stone bosses, statuary and other archaeological artefacts.
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Royal Crescent & the Circus
Bath has so many listed buildings that the entire city has been named a World Heritage Site by Unesco. The city's crowning glory is the Royal Crescent, a semicircular terrace of majestic houses overlooking a private lawn and the green sweep of Royal Victoria Park. Designed by John Wood the Younger (1728–82) and built between 1767 and 1775, the houses would have originally been rented for the season by wealthy socialites. These days flats on the crescent are still keenly sought after, and entire houses almost never come up for sale.
For a glimpse into the splendour and razzle-dazzle of Georgian life, head for No 1 Royal Crescent, given to the city by the shipping magnate …
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Prior Park
Celebrated landscape gardener Capability Brown and satirical poet Alexander Pope both had a hand in the creation of Prior Park, an 18th-century ornamental garden dreamt up by local entrepreneur Ralph Allen, who founded Britain's postal service, owned many local quarries and funded the construction of many of Bath's most notable buildings. Cascading lakes and a famous Palladian bridge can be found around the garden's winding walks, and the sweeping views of the Bath skyline are something to behold.
Prior Park is 1 mile south of Bath's centre; it can be reached on foot or by Bus 2 (every 10 minutes), as well as by the City Skyline tour.
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Fashion Museum
In the basement of the Assembly Rooms, this museum displays costumes worn from the 16th to late 20th centuries, including some alarming crinolines that would have forced women to approach doorways side on.
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