Judy and I have just come back from a fabulous couple of days In Bath in south-west England where we naturally visited the famous Roman Baths as well as Bath Abbey, which overlooks them.
The Roman Baths themselves are below the modern street level. There are four main features: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the Museum, holding finds from Roman Bath. The buildings above street level date from the 19th century.
The water which bubbles up from the ground at Bath falls as rain on the nearby Mendip Hills. It percolates down through limestone aquifers to a depth of between 2,700 and 4,300 metres (8,900 and 14,100 ft) where geothermal energy raises the water temperature to between 69 and 96 °C. Under pressure, the heated water rises to the surface along fissures and faults in the limestone. The first shrine at the site of the hot springs was built by Celts and was dedicated to the goddess Sulis, whom the Romans identified with Minerva.
The name Sulis continued to be used after the Roman invasion, leading to the town's Roman name of Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis"). The temple was constructed in 60-70 AD and the bathing complex was gradually built up over the next 300 years.
The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul is a former Benedictine monastery. Founded in the 7th century, Bath Abbey was reorganised in the 10th century and rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries. Major restoration work was carried out by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s. It is one of the largest examples of Perpendicular Gothic architecture in the West Country.
Tags: Somerset Bath Roman Baths Bath Abbey
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Pulteney Bridge crosses the River Avon in Bath, Somerset. It was completed by 1774 and connected the city with the newly built Georgian town of Bathwick. Designed by Robert Adam in a Palladian style, it is exceptional in having shops built across its full span on both sides. It has been designated as a Grade I listed-building.
Tags: Somerset Bath Pulteney Bridge Grade I-listed buildings bridges 18th century architecture Robert Adam Georgian architecture
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The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Bath, commonly known as Bath Abbey, is an Anglican parish church and a former Benedictine monastery in Bath, Somerset. Founded in the 7th century, Bath Abbey was reorganised in the 10th century and rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries. Major restoration work was carried out by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s. It is one of the largest examples of Perpendicular Gothic architecture in the West Country.
The abbey is a Grade I listed building, particularly noted for its fan vaulting. The west front (seen here) includes sculptures of angels climbing to heaven on two stone ladders.
The Roman Baths are on the right, just before the Abbey.
Tags: Somerset Bath Bath Abbey churches Grade I-listed buildings
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The Royal Crescent is a row of 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent in the City of Bath in Somerset. Designed by the architect John Wood the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774, it is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found in the United Kingdom. The buildings are all Grade I-listed.
John Wood designed the great curved façade with Ionic columns on a rusticated ground floor. The 114 columns are 30 inches in diameter reaching 47 feet, each with an entablature five feet deep. The central house (now the Royal Crescent Hotel) boasts two sets of coupled columns.
Interestingly, each original purchaser bought a length of the façade, and then employed their own architect to build a house behind the façade to their own specifications. Hence what can appear to be two houses is occasionally just one. While the front is uniform and symmetrical, the rear is a mixture of differing roof heights, juxtapositions and fenestration. In other words, a bit of a mess. This architecture, described as "Queen Anne fronts and Mary-Anne backs", occurs repeatedly in Bath.
The Royal Crescent is regarded as John Wood the Younger's greatest achievement and was one of the first designs of its type. It was imitated in Bath and also in later English towns such as Buxton, Brighton, Bristol and London.
Tags: Somerset Bath Royal Crescent Georgian architecture Grade I-listed buildings houses
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This beautiful indoor market with a central glazed dome dates from the 19th century and is the oldest shopping venue in the city. A market has traded on this site, which is near both the Abbey and the famous Pulteney Bridge, for the last 800 years.
Surviving from the 18th century is the ‘Nail’, a table on which market transactions took place, hence the saying, ‘pay on the nail’. Today a colourful group of 20 or so stall holders trade from this jewel of Bath. Judy and I enjoyed a snack and a drink at the little cafe on the right.
Tags: Somerset Bath Bath Guildhall Market indoor markets
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