Things to do 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.…
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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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Bizarre Bath Comedy Walks
For something less reverential; a chaotic blend of street theatre, live performance and guided tour. The 1½-hour tours leave from outside the Huntsman Inn on North Pde Passage.
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Roman Baths
Ever since the Romans arrived in Bath, life in the city has revolved around the three geothermal 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, which is a constant 46°C. Situated alongside an important temple dedicated to the healing goddess Sulis-Minerva, the baths are believed to have attracted tourists from right across the Empire, and now form one of the best-preserved ancient Roman spas in the world.
The heart of the complex is the Great Bath, a large lead-lined pool filled with steaming, geothermally heated…
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Bath Abbey
Looming above the centre of the city, Bath's huge abbey church was built between 1499 and 1616, making it the last great medieval church raised in England. Its 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 the celebrated bon viveur Beau Nash.
On the abbey's southern side, the small Vaults Heritage Museum explores the abbey's history and its links with the nearby baths.
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Jane Austen Centre
Bath is known to many as a location in Jane Austen's novels, including Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. Though Austen only lived in Bath for five years from 1801 to 1806, she remained a regular visitor throughout her life, as well as a keen student of the city's social scene. This museum houses a small collection of memorabilia relating to the writer's life in Bath, and costumed guides bring the era to life. There's also a Regency tearoom that serves crumpets and cream teas in suitably frilly surrounds.
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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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The Circus
Inspired by the Roman Colosseum, the Circus is a Georgian masterpiece of John Wood the Elder's design. Arranged over three equal terraces, the 33 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.
To the south along Gravel Walk is the Georgian Garden, restored to resemble a typical 18th-century townhouse garden.
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Sally Lunn's
This fabulously frilly tearoom occupies one of Bath's oldest houses, and makes the perfect venue for classic cream tea (served in proper bone china), accompanied by finger sandwiches, dainty cakes and the trademark Sally Lunn's Bun.
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Gascoyne Place
Another quality gastropub opposite the Theatre Royal.
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Sotto Sotto
Authentic Italian food served in a lovely cellar setting complete with barrel-brick roof. Ingredients are shipped in directly and everything's just like mama made, from the osso bucco (veal shank) to the orecchiette mare e monti (top-hat pasta with seafood, beans and pancetta).
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Victoria Art Gallery
This excellent art museum houses some 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.
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Café Retro
This place is a poke in the eye for the corporate coffee chains. The paint job's scruffy, the crockery's ancient and none of the furniture matches, but that's all part of the charm: this is a cafe from the old school, and there's nowhere better for a burger, cake or hot mug of tea. Takeaways available from Retro to Go next door.
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Olive Tree Restaurant
Chic and sleek, and one of the finest restaurants in town, this understated place with oak floors and dark leather furniture serves up a top-notch menu of simple modern British and French cuisine. You'll find it inside the Queensberry Hotel.
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Walrus & the Carpenter
There's a warren of rooms at this fun and funky place dishing up top-notch homemade global grub with a heavy vegetarian bias. It does brilliant burgers, Mediterranean snacks and some killer Walrus cocktails.
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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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Paxton & Whitfield
You can smell this place long before you see it - a gourmet cheese shop selling everything from Cheddar cheddar to Cornish brie and French camembert.
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Boston Tea Party
The city's original lunch stop is still jamming in the punters with its zingy citrus drinks, fruit smoothies and gourmet wraps, soups and sandwiches.
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Guildhall Market
Self-caterers are spoilt for choice at the Guildhall Market, where you'll find small specialist shops offering all kinds of sweet and savoury treats.
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Pig & Fiddle
Fave with the Bath Spa students, especially for big-screen sports and table footie.
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Little Theatre
Bath's art-house cinema, screening mostly fringe and foreign-language films.
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Thermae Bath Spa
- Bath, England
- Activities › Spa
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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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American Museum in Britain
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. Several rooms have been recreated in period style, including a 17th-century Puritan house, an 18th-century tavern and a New Orleans boudoir c 1860. Catch bus 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; rooms open to the public 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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