Bath, A Jewel of an English City!

A typical street in Bath, England, with typical English weather.

When you think of the city of Bath, England, what comes to mind?  Drawing a blank?  Can’t get past the tower of London, Big Ben, and beer?  I sympathize.  Fortunately, I am here to enlighten you with a very brief overview of the glories of this uniquely delightful English city.

Bath, England:  Romans, Georgian Architecture, Jane Austin.  Pick just one and you’re in for a lifetime of blissful study.  We picked all three and ran ourselves raged in our five day, four night stay.  Yeah, you might say, but I don’t read, don’t like architecture, and who the hell is Jane Austin?

To that, I say, you are absolutely right to enjoy some reruns of The Flintstones, swilling a cold beer and munching a bowlful of grease laden, overly salted chips.  By the way, that’s chips in the American version.  Chips in the English version are what Americans call French fries. The Brits call our chips, crisps, a word difficult to say after you finish your first six pack.

Crisps are crispier than crinkled crumpets.  And by the way, what the Brits call crumpets, we call English muffins and what they call muffins….oh what the hell, change channels and pop another cold one.

But, for those worldly folk who travel to far places, and whose sweep of mind spans all forms of knowledge, let’s briefly explore Georgian architecture.

Bath is an almost perfectly preserved Georgian city.  By the way, what does the term Georgian architecture mean?  Well, first you have to know who George was.  From 1714 to 1830, a succession of British monarchs were named George, Georges I, II, III, and IV to be exact.  You may remember George III, the monarch during America's War of Independence.

An example of Georgian architecture....found all over the city.

And what is the style?  Some would say, exact symmetry.  Evenly spaced windows of the same size, chimneys on either end of the house, smaller dormer windows above. Pediments over the front entrance and windows.

When you stroll through this Georgian wonder of a city, you may notice some large bricked up windows.  Mark those down to the ‘window tax,’ another clever nonsensical result of government spending more money than it was bringing in.  To figure the tax on a house, the taxman counted the windows. This bit of governmental detritus floated from 1696 to 1851, and was dubbed ‘Daylight Robbery.’

A closeup of apartments on The Circus

The Circus

A view from No. 1 Royal Crescent

The Royal Crescent.  No 1 is on the far right.

I told you everything in Bath is close.  The Circus and The Royal Crescent are only a couple of blocks apart.

Every street in Bath is a testimony to the Georgian style, but some you must not miss are The Royal Crescent (No 1 is open to the public), and The Circus, a fabulous array of Georgian townhouses.  As you may know, originally Circus meant circle or ring (Latin).  Hence, modern circus tents are usually round, and we also have the nautical and aviation term circumnavigation.  In London, there’s the famous Piccadilly Circus, a vast traffic circle in the center of the city.

A view of the Roman baths.  Open for bathing until 1970!

The famous Pump House, next to the Roman Baths, and featured in a couple of Jane Austen's novels.

On to the Romans.  The Romans built a temple here in 50 A.D. and dedicated it to the Celtic goddess Sul and the Roman goddess Minerva, the goddess of healing.  Clever these Romans, to incorporate a local god along with their own.   The Romans named the city we now call Bath, Aquae-Sulis, the waters of Sulis.

Soon after, the Romans built an elaborate bath on the site of hot-springs, whose waters had been noted for centuries for their healing powers.  The baths and associated museum and displays are the best curated Roman remains I’ve seen, and that includes those in Rome.  The repair, uncovering, and upkeep are stories in themselves, and the results are a master’s class in Roman civilization and a Roman’s daily life.

Inside The Abbey

The Abbey's ornate ceiling.

Another place to visit is the world famous Bath Abbey, or as it’s officially known The Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It’s an Anglian church now, but it’s history dates to 757 A.D. and an Anglo-Saxon monastery.  The Normans pulled it down to build a Norman cathedral.  In next few centuries, Norman edifice fell to ruin, and was then rebuilt to become a Catholic monastery, only to be ruined in 1539 when Henry VIII ordered monasteries dissolved.  Repairs began 70 years later and finished in 1874.

http://www.bathabbey.org

Pulteney Bridge, also showing the weir (lower right corner), a method of flood control.

Don’t miss The Pulteney Bridge, one of only a few bridges in the world lined with shops.  Completed in 1774, it crosses the River Avon.  What's another bridge with shops?  Come on, you travel junkies!  The Ponte Vechio in Florence, Italy, of course.

Shopping?  Oh, yeah, let’s get to that.  Bath is number one on my list for shopping areas.  Bath Street, in the old downtown is just the start of a bee hive of name shops, specialty stores, and bargain spots.  We had tea at Waterstone’s Books, at 4-5 Milsom, in the heart of the downtown.  Café W is known for it’s selections of local produce, including cookies and cakes.  The staff is friendly and since it was near closing time, the wait-staff passed out unsold pastries to all the patrons.

 The closeness of all the sights and shops and pubs makes Bath an ideal city for strolling.  Walk a few steps, see a major attraction, walk again and have tea, then a couple more blocks and you're at another attraction.  Perfect!

Ok, ok, now what about Jane Austin?  Sorry folks, that’s for another day, another blog, but soon…

And remember:  More yet to come, with closer looks at the Roman Baths, No 1 Royal Crescent, Pubs, and tea emporiums.  Oh, yeah, Bath is a small wonder world!

Getting there:  Trains leave from London's Paddington Station every 30 minutes for the hour and a half trip.