Georgian Bath

[Home] [The History of Bath] [Roman Bath] [Saxon Bath] [Norman Bath] [Medieval Bath]
[Renaissance Bath] [Georgian Bath] [Victorian Bath] [20th Century Bath] [21st Century Bath]

Over the next 40 years, three men were to be instrumental in transforming a medieval walled City of 3,000 people into an elegant Georgian City with a population of 30,000. Beau Nash was Master of Ceremonies and turned Bath into a social haven for the wealthy and prosperous. John Wood was an architect responsible for the extensive redesigning and reconstruction of Bath, while Ralph Allen, a quarry owner and philanthropist, provided the funds and materials for the building.

In the years following the deaths of Nash, Wood and Allen, Bath grew in wealth and popularity, becoming known as the finest City in Europe, epitomizing the height of style and fashion.

Others continued the building and construction of Georgian Bath. The Pulteneys, one of the richest families in England, owned land on the eastern side of the river. They wanted to develop the land and, in 1770, they employed the Scottish architect Robert Adam to design Pulteney Bridge to connect the Bathwick estate with the City. It is based on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, with shops on either side. The bridge was completed in 1774 and it was unique in England at that time. The Pulteney estate continued to expand with the building of the main arterial road, Great Pulteney Street, in 1788. The pinnacle of this project was the Holborne Menstrie Museum, built in 1796.

The medieval Guildhall, originally designed by the 16^th Century Classical Architect Inigo Jones, was demolished and in 1776, the City surveyor Thomas Baldwin designed and built what is now the centre portion of the Guildhall.

In 1781, William Herschel, a scientist and astronomer, discovered the planet Uranus. This made him world famous and placed Bath on the astronomical map.

Bath suffered a drop in popularity on the advent of the French Revolutionary Wars. Banks and builders went bankrupt and the construction halted. The city became unfashionable as society began to favour the salt water of the sea, to the mineral water of Bath.

However, during the 18^th and 19^th Centuries, the City became a cultural centre and attracted a wide variety of the rich and famous. Visitors included writers Jane Austen, Oliver Goldsmith and Charles Dickens; the artist Thomas Gainsborough; poets William Wordsworth, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Walter Savage Landor; and actors David Garrick and Sara Siddons. Bath also attracted Lord Nelson, Josiah Wedgwood, William Pitt, Lord Clive (later Governor of Bengal in India) and the explorer and missionary Dr David Livingstone.

In 1805, nine days before the Battle of Trafalgar, the Theatre Royal was opened. This was the City’s fourth since 1705. The back of the theatre, in Beaufort Square, was adorned with the Royal Coat of Arms. The railings around the lawn are replicas of the seamen’s pikes used at the time of Lord Nelson’s death and placed there in his memory.