Bath in Somerset UK

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A couple of months back, we visited the UK to attend our daughter’s master’s degree graduation at Oxford. We used the opportunity to visit and catch up with family and some friends as well. We managed to fit in some sight-seeing as well. I’ll be posting some of the photographs from that trip here on the blog in instalments. These are some photographs from our time at Bath in Somerset, UK.

We spent a couple of days with my good friend, fellow food blogger Jayasri and her family. They were nice enough to show us around Bristol, Bath and a bit of Cardiff Bay. The city of Bath gets its name from the Roman Baths built around the hot springs there in 60AD. My sister and I grew up reading quite a lot of Georgette Heyer’s books and many of her regency stories were set in and around Bath. So being able to visit Bath was something of a dream come true for us. Bath has a lot of history and there’s plenty to see if you have the time. We had a good part of just one chilly overcast day and these are photographs of some of the places we visited.

Bath is well known for the Roman Thermal Baths, the Bath Abbey, Pulteney Bridge, The Crescent, The Circus, Jane Austen and the Sally Lunn or Bath Bun! We were typical tourists and tried to pack in as mauch of this as we could. It was late in fall but I still got to cross off my bucket list – seeing the colours of fall.

Colours of Fall, near Bath Crescent

Somewhere near Bath Crescent

Also near Bath Crescent

Road leading to the Obelisk in Orange Grove in Bath.

Pulteney Bridge, over the River Avon, is one of the iconic landmarks of Bath. It was built in 1774 to connect Bath with land of the Pulteney family. Unusual in a bridge, it is one of only four bridges in the world to house shops on both sides. The “V” shaped Weir in the river was built to deal with centuries of flooding problems of the Avon.

Pulteney Bridge with the “V” shaped weir in the foreground.

A view of the River Avon

Another view of the River Avon

Bath Abbey is in the heart of Bath, next to Roman Baths. The present Abbey church originally founded in the 7th century, and since destroyed and rebuilt many times. It dominates the city centre view and most definitely worth a visit.

The Bath Abbey

Another view of the Bath Abbey.

Stained glass and altar at the eastern end of the nave at Bath Abbey.

Stained glass of the clerestory, along the south aisle of the nave at Bath Abbey (A clerestory is a high section of wall with windows above eye level to let in air or light.)

Bath Abbey has a remarkable collection of ordinary, unusual and even somewhat humorous commemorative plaques of its citizens.

One of the many commemorative plaques in Bath Abbey.

Effigy of Sir William Waller and his first wife Jane, on her tomb. William Waller was Parliamentarian commander in the English Civil War and a Presbyterian political leader in the House of Commons. The epitaph behind reads – “Sole issue of a matchlesse paire Both of their state and vertues heire In graces great, in stature small As full of spirit as voyd of gall Cheerfully grave bounteously close Holy without vainglorious showes; Happy and yet from envy free; Learn’d without pride, witty yet wise Reader this riddle read with mee. Here the good Lady Waller lyes.”

The Roman Baths are built upon natural hot springs. An Iron Age tribe Dobunni, built the first shrine here dedicated to their Goddess Sulis. When Romans invaded Britain they turned this into a temple and social baths calling it Aquae Sulis, ‘the waters of Sulis’. The hot mineral water beneath the city was channeled through lead pipes to a series of chambers with baths, heated rooms and plunge pools. The Romans left in the early 5th century.

Much later, in the 17th century British doctors started prescribing drinking of the thermal waters for various illnesses. The Pump Room opened in 1706 so patients could drink directly from the springs. During Regency times, Bath changed from a small spa town to an important social and fashionable destination for the English aristocracy.

The Great Bath is 1.6 metres deep, lined with 45 sheets of lead has steps leading down on all sides. Doors on the sides lead off to changing rooms, heated rooms, saunas with heating systems under the floor, and plunge pools. There are statues of important Roman figures looking down from the top floor balconies. The bath house and the baths together is a huge complex built in true Roman ostentatious style.

Another view of the Great Bath. The water in the pool looks green because of the presence of algae.

The Great Bath with the a view of the Bath Abbey in the background.

Actors dressed up as Roman characters are often present at the Baths to talk to visitors about life in the time of the Romans.

Four statues stand guard over the Roman baths. From left to right, Emperor Vespasian, Governor Ostorius Scapula, Governor Suetonius Paulinus and Governor Julius Agricola. The statues were carved in Victorian times for the grand reopening of the baths in 1897.

Statue of Emperor Vespasian at the Great Bath.

Statue of Governor Ostorius Scapula at the Great Bath.

The entrance to the King’s and Queen’s Baths. The King’s Baths were built in the 12th Century, and the Queen’s Baths in the 16th Century. The Baths were mixed except the Queen’s Baths which admitted women only.

The Bath Abbey Church Yard. This is adjacent to the Roman Baths and is where the entrance to the Pump Room is. The Pump Room was where water was pumped Bath’s hot springs. Today it is a restaurant.

Jane Austen was one of the more famous temporary residents of Bath. Her family was known to visit the Roman Baths. Austen’s two novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, are set in Bath

This Obelisk was originally built in 1734 to commemorate the visit of William IV, Prince of Orange, to the city. The Orange Grove City Centre is to the right.

Originally known as King’s Circus (latin for circle), the Circus at Bath is a ring of three segments of elite townhouses. It was designed by architect John Wood the elder in Palladian style. Built between 1754 and 1768, the three segments form a circle with three entrances. Each segment is of equal length and faces on of the entrances and the park at the centre. One of those entrances leads towards the Royal Crescent.

The street leading towards Bath Circus.

A side view of the Circus. The Classic styled facade has three different kinds of columns. The bottom storey columns are Doric, the second are Roman, and the top are Corinthian in style.

The Royal Crescent was built as 30 terraced houses in a 150 metre long crescent for wealthy Englishmen. It was designed by John Wood the Younger and built from 1767 and 1774. The owners had to maintain the outer facade while they were free to chose the design of the interiors. This has resulted in a uniform facade on the front but a very different view form the back side of the building. No. Royal Crescent is a museum with the house furnished as it would have been in the late 18th century. The huge lawns outside lead towards the Royal Victoria Park.

The right half of the Royal Crescent as you face it. No.1 Royal Crescent which is maintained as a museum is where the cars are parked.

The other end of the Royal Crescent.

Yet another view of the Royal Crescent.

Streets in any part of the world tell you a lot about the city and it’s people. The streets around Bath are a quaint mix of old worldly charm and the modern. Green Street, for example, is part of the shopping district in Bath. There are shops here from the 1600s! Apparently Green Street is so named because it used to be where the village green once stood. It seems cows used to walk that way from the medieval original city wall to the fields beyond.

The church of St. Michael’s Without, so called because it originally stood ‘without’ or outside the walls of the medieval city of Bath. This church has stood on this site for many centuries and the present building is the fourth on this site, dating from 1837.

Green Street, with the church of St. Michael’s Without at the end of the street.

Old Bond Street – Not quite London’s Bond Street but quaint and supposedly Bath’s most fashionable street and close to Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths.

New Bond Street Place is another shopping avenue connecting New Bond Street and Upper Borough Walls.

High Street near Bath Abbey

Cast iron boot scrapers in a variety of shapes were found at the entrances to homes in an age when horses and carriages were the norm. They were traditionally used to clear boots and shoes of mud and debris before entering a building. You can see them around older areas of Bath.

On a Coffee Break at one of the many cafes in Bath

There’s one last thing that you must absolutely check out in Bath, especially as a food blogger. That’s the Bath Buns that have been here since some time in the 1700s. I say Bath Buns because there are two of them – The Sally Lunn Bun and then the Bath Bun itself. They can both be found in eateries around Bath. Both come with rather far fetched origin stories. There is no record of the Solange Luyon story before the 20th century. The Bath Bun probably derived from the 18th century Bath Cake.

The Sally Lunn is like a rather plain domed brioche. It’s about 6 inches in diameter and nothing much to write home about, really. The story goes that the Sally Lunn Bun was invented by one Solange Luyon, a 17th-century Huguenot refugee from France. She found a job at a bakery in Bath where she showed the baker how to make French style enriched breads. These were served for breakfast and tea in Bath and became known after her as Sally Lunn Buns.

The original recipe is said to have been lost in the late 1800s, but then found in the 1930s in a cupboard in Sally Lunn’s former home. Her former home is now the Sally Lunn Eating House, a restaurant and tourist attraction. We gave in and stepped into Sally Lunn’s place for tea. Our bun came with clotted cream, preserves and lemon curd. I have to admit it was a bit of a disappointment. The Sally Lunn Bun is eaten sweet or savoury.

Bath Buns are smaller and sweeter than Sally Lunn Buns. They’re baked with a lump of sugar in the bottom, crushed sugar sprinkled on top and usually currants or raisins inside them. The story goes that they were invented by William Oliver, an 18th-century physician. He would supposedly send his patients home with some. He is also credited with the invention of dry crackers called Bath Oliver!