An Unconventional Tour of Bath

Parade Gardens (I love that staircase!) with the Empire Hotel behind. Bath, Somerset, United Kingdom.

During a walking tour of Bath, I found myself taking pictures of various scenes that caught my eye. As it turned out, I hit upon a lot of Bath highlights, which I am posting here. What you won’t find in this post, however, are a few locations that I think deserve special attention (as in separate posts).

I’ve already posted a three-part tour of My Best of Bath Abbey, a post on the Pulteney Bridge, which spans the River Avon, and an image of the main Roman bath. So for this photo tour I won’t revisit those locations, but will focus on select locations within the city of Bath itself.

The Parade Gardens Municipal Park is a serene, centrally located spot beside the River Avon and very close to Bath Abbey. The park is sunken in relation to the surrounding roads and their traffic. The Angel of Peace statue (King Edward VII Memorial), in the foreground at the base of the steps, keeps watch over the garden near its entrance. To gain entrance as a visitor, the current ticket prices are £1.00 per adult and £0.70 per concession (locals get in for free).

The Grand Parade, which passes beside the River Avon and by the Pulteney Bridge, is the street at the north end of the Parade Gardens. If you look at this post’s first image, you can see that same bus from the opposite angle.

That bus is just one of many that are part of Bath City Sightseeing Tour‘s hop on hop off routes, which provide access to over 20 stops covering the majority of Bath’s tourist attractions. I’ve never taken the tour, so I can’t really offer an opinion, but given my experience on other cities’ hop on hop off buses, I’d expect that it provides a lot of good information along with the transportation.

St Michael’s Church looks very proud to me. And there’s another one of those buses!

This is Milsom Street, which is a main shopping street. The buildings were originally town houses, but most are now used as shops, offices, and banks.

The Royal Mineral Water Hospital, founded in 1738, originally provided care for the impoverished sick who were attracted to Bath because of the supposed healing properties of the mineral water. It is now part of the National Health Service (NHS) and specializes in Rheumatic diseases. I don’t know if Bath’s mineral water is still used as any part of a patient’s treatment, but I doubt it.

This photo of the hospital and pedestrian area was taken from roughly the same spot as the photo above, but facing south instead of north.

One street over from Milsom and a bit farther north and we entered the Circus, a perfectly round group of buildings surrounding a road that circles a small garden area.

Here is a panorama of the Circus, considered the masterpiece of John Wood the Elder and one of the key reasons Bath was awarded the title of World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

To the west of and very close by the Circus, we encountered the Royal Crescent, which contains some 30 houses, including one that is now the Royal Crescent Hotel and another, Number 1, that is open to the public.

A panorama of the Royal Crescent doesn’t really do it justice. The unique curved feature of the townhouse block has been stretched and appears straighter than it actually is.

Here’s a more direct view of the Royal Crescent. In front of the Royal Crescent is a ha-ha, a ditch faced with a vertical stone retaining wall on the inner side and a sloped and turfed outer side. The purpose of the landscaping feature is to keep grazing livestock out of a garden while providing an uninterrupted view from within. I doubt renegade sheep are a contemporary problem, but who knows?

We passed Great Pulteney Street on our way out of town. This grand thoroughfare was commissioned by William Pulteney, who also commissioned the Pulteney Bridge. Jane Austin used to call this elegant locale home.

A door. That’s it. Perhaps there’s more of a story. I don’t know. I just liked it.

Daniel Street has character, but the residences are less grand than those found on the nearby Great Pulteney Street.

Near the edge of town, we traveled along Bathwick Street…

towards London Road, where we turned right and headed for home.

So, at the conclusion of this tour, I hope you’ve had a taste of Bath’s architecture and some of its famous and lesser-known attractions. Of course, this doesn’t even scratch the surface of all that is Bath, but what post ever could?