About Bath

A World-Class Destination

About Bath

Bath is a world-class destination, rich in Roman and Georgian heritage. Nestling in a sheltered valley, surrounded like Rome by seven wooded hills and nourished by Britain’s only natural hot springs, Bath has been luring visitors with it’s obvious charms for well over 2000 years

Rich in Heritage


An exquisite Georgian city grew from Bath’s ancient admins. The Royal Crescent, The Circus, Pump Room and Pulteney Bridge are among the finest architectural treasures in the world. Indeed, the entire city has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. 

This comfortably sized city is packed with places to visit. Bath’s rich diversity of museums, galleries, gardens and attractions including the Roman Baths and 15th-century Bath Abbey are all within easy walking distance of each other. The Roman Baths is one of Europe’s finest ancient monuments, walk where Romans walked on ancient stone pavements and imagine the grandeur of their town of Aquae Sulis centred on the natural hot springs. Bath’s status as a world-class city is further enhanced by the remarkable Thermae Bath Spa. 

The revival of this 2,000-year old tradition means that Bath is a fully fledged spa city once again.

A Thriving, Vibrant City


Bath’s impeccable historic credentials don’t tell the full story. Today, more so than ever, it’s a thriving, vibrant city. Nineteenth-century Georgian gaiety has been replaced by a decidedly 21st-century cosmopolitan buzz. Bath offers an enviable lifestyle, with a year-round calendar of festivals, theatrical, musical and sporting events. 

It’s a lively scene, with over 150 restaurants and traditional pubs scattered among some of the best quality independent shops in Britain.

For almost two millennia, the city of Bath has welcomed visitors of all kinds: the sick, seeking a cure from the healing waters, the wealthy seeking entertainment and today’s visitors, drawn by the legacy of that past. This includes some of the most spectacular Roman remains in Britain and a city unique in being almost exclusively Georgian. 

Bath is one of the best-preserved eighteenth-century cities in the world. Such is its importance that in 1988 the whole city was designated a World Heritage Site. Bath owes its existence to its hot springs – the only ones in this country. 

Long before the Roman invasion in AD 43, the Celtic population revered this miracle of nature, seeing in it the power of the Goddess Sulis. But it was Roman technology that created a bathing establishment known throughout Europe. Work began on the baths and temple precinct around the 60s and 70s of the first century. The great complex beneath the present day Pump Room formed the nucleus of the Roman town of Aquae Sulis. Much of this urban development lies hidden forever beneath the later city, but every year new excavations by the Bath Archaeological Trust reveal more about Bath’s Roman past.
The Roman town flourished for as long as the great empire of which it was an outpost could support it. But by the early fifth century, Aquae Sulis was in decline. 

With the collapse of Roman rule, the great bathing complex fell into ruin. Emphasis shifted to the foundation of a Saxon monastery. Roman buildings were robbed to their foundations to provide building materials for the growing Christian settlement. It was to become one of the most important monasteries in England. In 973 King Edgar, first king of all England, was crowned in the Abbey Church in the presence of the Archbishops of York and Canterbury. A special service was devised for the occasion and this is still used, little changed, for the coronation of British monarchs.

With the coming of the Normans, Bath gained a new dignity – in 1091 it became a cathedral city. Bishop John of Tours replaced the monastery with a great cathedral priory on the continental model. The Tudor Abbey Church occupies only the nave area of the vast Norman cathedral. Also around this time new baths were built at the three hot springs: the King’s, Hot and Cross Baths.

During the Middle Ages, Bath was well-known for its cloth-making. But as the wool trade slumped in the mid-16th century, the hot springs reclaimed their status as the chief attraction of the town. The visit of Queen Elizabeth in 1574 set the seal of royal approval on Bath as a spa. The baths were enlarged
and improved and the nobility and gentry flocked to the city. Fine inns and lodging houses sprang up to accommodate them and already in the 17th century,
Bath was considered one of the loveliest cities in the country.

As the 18th century dawned a new era opened for Bath. The seasonal influx of a wealthy elite acted as a magnet to the luxury trades. Artists, actors, musicians and gamblers peopled a playground for the aristocracy. Richard Beau Nash, attracted to Bath as a gambler, became the city’s Master of
Ceremonies. His firm hand welded together polite society in a fashionable round of promenades, assemblies and visits to the Pump Room. Bath was still the hospital of the nation, but the glittering social life of the country’s premier resort drew ever more visitors.
Bath burst out of the cramped confines of its medieval walls in a great spurt of new building. Elegant terraces snaked out across the surrounding hills, capturing between them stretches of countryside that became the city’s parks and gardens. John Wood the elder was the visionary architect who led the way. Leasing land outside the city walls, he planned Queen Square, the Parades and the Circus as speculative ventures. Wood designed developments with the grandeur of palaces but the convenience of a row of private houses. Individual plots were sub-leased to building tradesmen, who were left to devise their own interiors, provided they conformed to Wood’s splendid designs for the façades.

The Palladian revival was then sweeping through British architecture. This movement aimed to return to pure Classical principals, after a surfeit of the rich curves and heavy ornamentation of the Baroque. Palladianism inspired John Wood and the local builders who followed his example, giving Georgian Bath a remarkable architectural unity. It was the creation of local men using local materials, the golden Bath stone quarried in the surrounding hills. As the spacious Georgian streets spread out around it, the tightly packed ancient core of the city became a bottleneck. The baths themselves were out of date and Bath’s medical fraternity urged improvements. In 1789, The Bath Improvement Act created powers to purchase, demolish and rebuild. The City Surveyor, Thomas Baldwin, drew up plans for a fitting centre to the Georgian city, though not along strictly Palladian lines. His façades are softened by delicate decoration in the style of Robert Adam. 

A new broad colonnaded Bath Street linked the rebuilt Cross Bath and Grand Pump Room in an impressive ensemble. But the heyday of the spa had passed; Bath’s very popularity had killed it as a fashionable resort. As the middle classes crowded the city in the later 18th century, the glamour of exclusivity was lost. Gradually the lively flow of seasonal visitors, bringing with them a breath of the metropolis, gave way to a staider air. Bath became a favoured retirement home for those seeking an inexpensive gentility. After 1800, seaside resorts gained in popularity and Bath entered a quieter phase. Today the city attracts visitors from all over the globe and the atmosphere sparkles with cosmopolitan life. Some of the world’s greatest actors and musicians perform here and even the streets are alive with entertainers. Bath has become an international cultural centre, as well as a world heritage city.

Royal Bath


Bath’s Royal connections date back to the city’s very beginning. Today there are a host of interesting highlights for Royalty enthusiasts to explore and fascinating stories to uncover. Everyone feels like Royalty in Bath, so why not treat your loved one like a prince or princess on a Royal break in Bath?

Royal Beginnings


Legend has it that around 500bc a young Prince Bladud stumbled upon healing spring waters while exiled for being accursed with Leprosy. The waters cured his affliction and he returned to his family, later becoming King. In gratitude to the healing powers of the spring, King Bladud began the building of the city of Bath.

A statue of King Bladud stands in the Royal Bath at the Roman Baths and you can see many paintings and illustrations depicting the story in the Pump Room. The first King of England, King Edgar’s coronation was held in Bath Abbey in 973ad. Today, you can see the stunning Edgar Window at the east end of the Abbey, which depicts the ceremony. You can also see a commemorative stone in the Abbey’s floor, celebrating a visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973 to mark 1000 years since the crowning of Edgar and the creation of the English Monarchy.

Royal Visits


There are a number of reported Royal visits to Bath during its history, leaving a wealth of evidence behind for you to discover. Queen Anne visited in 1688 seeking a cure for her gout. Her visit is credited for making Bath incredibly popular among fashionable high society in the years following. You too can take to the waters by bathing at Thermae Bath Spa, or taste the water direct from the Pump in the Pump Room.

In 1830, a young Princess Victoria, later to become Queen Victoria, came to Bath with her mother to open the park named in her honour – Royal Victoria Park. They stayed in the Royal Hotel, where you can see a commemorative plaque, erected to mark their visit. At the Victoria Art Gallery, you will see an impressive statue of the Queen Victoria outside – a fitting memorial to this important Queen, and fascinating exhibitions throughout the year inside.

Today, Bath’s stunning architecture, relaxing atmosphere and excellent transport links with London and the Cotswolds makes Bath really popular with British Royals. HRH the Prince of Wales was recently in Bath to open his Highgrove Shop, which sells products inspired by the interests of the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles), and his family home, Highgrove, in the Cotswolds. Sulis Guides and World Heritage Trails offer day visits from Bath to Highgrove, so you can see how Royalty live. Princess Anne often frequents Bath on visits to local charities, as does The Duchess of Cornwall who has a home in nearby Reybridge.

In November 2010, HRH The Duchess of Cornwall switched on Bath’s Christmas lights, to mark the start of late night shopping in the city.
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