Showing 1-18 of 18 results
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American Museum
Commemorating everything from the Puritan pioneers to the Wild West frontier, the American Museum houses a huge collection of Stateside artefacts in the grand environs of Claverton Manor. Established in 1961, the museum's displays range from First Nation handiwork to vintage revolvers, pioneers' maps and a collection of American quilts.
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Assembly Rooms
The city's glorious Assembly Rooms were built in 1771 under the supervision of Beau Nash. Chamber concerts, card games and public balls were held in the gloriously furnished rooms, and welcomed many famous visitors including Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Haydn and Strauss. You can stroll around the card room, tearoom and ballroom, all lit by their spectacular 18th-century chandeliers (one of which nearly crushed the artist Thomas Gainsborough in 1771).
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Bath Abbey
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. The most striking feature of the abbey's exterior is the west facade, where angels climb up and down stone ladders, commemorating a dream of the founder, Bishop Oliver King.
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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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Building of Bath Museum
For the back-story on Bath, head for the Building of Bath Museum, which traces the city's evolution from a sleepy spa town into one of the centres of Georgian society. Its eclectic displays detail everything from how to build a Georgian sash window to a guide to the most fashionable wallpapers of 18th-century society.
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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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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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Herschel Museum of Astronomy
The classical composer turned telescope maker William Herschel lived in a town house on King St, now the Herschel Museum of Astronomy. Herschel's achievements included the discovery of Uranus in 1781 and the construction of several pioneering telescopes, including a gargantuan 40ft (12m) refractor built in 1785.
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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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Jane Austen Centre
Though Bath only features in two Jane Austen novels ( Persuasion and Northanger Abbey ), for many people the city is the quintessential Austenesque setting, the perfect place for dashing young beaus to sweep retiring young dilettantes off their feet. Austen lived in the city from 1801 to 1806, residing at various houses including No 4 Sydney Pl (marked by a blue plaque opposite the Holburne Museum).
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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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Museum of East Asian Art
The Museum of East Asian Art has a collection of over 2000 artefacts gathered from Cambodia, Japan, China and other parts of Southeast Asia, including Japanese sculptures, ornate hand fans and bamboo carvings.
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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.
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Roman Baths
The Roman Baths now comprise one of the best-preserved ancient Roman spas in the world. Unfortunately, they're also a must-see item on everyone's itinerary, and the summertime crowds can reach titanic proportions - to avoid the worst crush, visit as early or late in the day as possible, and steer clear of July and August - sightseeing in a camera-wielding human stampede isn't all it's cracked up to be.
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Roman Baths Museum
The Roman Baths Museum is one of England's most popular attractions and can be overrun in summer. Ideally, visit early on a midweek morning and allow at least an hour to fully appreciate it. The monumental remains are some of the best preserved in Britain.
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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.
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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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Victoria Art Gallery
More glorious artwork lines the walls of the Victoria Art Gallery the city's main art museum. There are fine canvases by Gainsborough, Turner and Sickert, as well as biting Georgian caricatures from the pens of James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson.
Showing 1-18 of 18 results
