Bath on Foot - Georgian urban design & architecture

Bath is one of the supreme achievements of European architecture and urban design. The Romans did as Romans do and harnessed hot springs to create a resort of some magnificence; belief in their medicinal benefits was revived in Tudor times. But it was in the 18th century that visiting Bath became highly fashionable, and entrepreneurs and architects transformed and extended the city into the beautiful creation we see today. 

While inspired by the memory of the Roman past, the classical architecture was adapted to satisfy the taste and desires of the Georgian aristocracy and merchant classes. The location of the city also had a profound effect on its character, rising up from a curl in the River Avon into a bowl of limestone hills from which the distinctive honey-coloured stone was quarried. 

We see the finest of these buildings – the classic John Wood sequence of Queen Square, Circus and Royal Crescent; the Pump Room, colonnaded Bath Street, the Guildhall and the Assembly Rooms; the curvacious sequence of Somerset Place and the Lansdowns and the grandeur of Great Pulteney Street. We also explore some of the lesser-known but equally attractive corners of this most fascinating of cities.

The lecturer, Dr Geoffrey Tyack, is a distinguished historian of Georgian architecture. Three interiors will be seen if regulations permit, but the day has been planned to be satisfactory without.