The Elegance of Bath

We did not want to leave England without visiting Bath, one of England's prettiest cities. Sitting on a landscape of rolling hills astride the Avon River, it is both charming and elegant, exuding an air of small-town simplicity, yet oozing with sophistication.

Located in the ceremonial county of Somerset in southwest England, Bath is a historic Roman and Georgian spa city. It is famous for its hot springs, stately Georgian architecture, medieval heritage buildings, and of course, the Roman Baths. In 1987, the whole city was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Need I say more?

As we drove through the rolling countryside of Somerset, the first thing that came to mind was how romantic it looked. Our guide mentioned that author Jane Austen lived here between 1801 and 1805. At that time, I thought she must have derived a lot of inspiration for her novels from the beauty of this place, but I later learned that her brief stay in Bath was ironically one of the most unproductive years of her writing life due in part to some form of loneliness from leaving her home in Steventon after her father retired. However, her post-humous novel, Northanger Abbey, though more of a social satire than a love story, is set in Bath, and many of the sites she mentioned in the book can still be visited today. There is a small Jane Austen Centre in the city, but we were told there is really not much to see in there apart from a small permanent exhibition.

Our guide also pointed at several summer homes belonging to celebrities, including Jane Seymour, Johnny Depp, Hugh Grant and Liz Hurley, and two actors from the series Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, whose names I forgot. I wasn’t surprised at all, for this city seems like the perfect place to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life, the glare of the klieg lights, the prying eyes of the media, and the pressures of public life.

Our bus parked near the fountain beside Bath Abbey, the last Gothic church in England and built on the ruins of a former Norman Cathedral. Australians come here to pay homage to Arthur Philip, the first Governor of New South Wales and founder of the city of Sydney. His tomb is inside this abbey. We just took a little peek inside then proceeded next door to the Roman Baths, the highlight of this visit.

The baths, built by the Romans around 2,000 years ago and rediscovered by the Victorians, are fuelled by England’s only mineral hot springs. Most of the structures are below the modern street level, beneath adjacent streets and squares. By looking at the map handed to us by our guide, along with our entrance tickets and head sets, I already knew we wouldn’t have enough time to see everything in detail. We decided to concentrate on the four main features – the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House, and Finds from the Roman Bath.

As we ascended The Terrace overlooking The Great Bath, we saw statues of Roman leaders lining up the corridors. The view from this vantage point is the most photographed one and is featured in most postcards, so it was here where I also took most of our posed shots. I even saw costumed characters walking about and posing for pictures so I had one taken with a guy dressed up as a Roman pagan priest, both of us with outstretched hands as if to give some sort of Roman blessing. Well, why not play the part?

Aside from the main features of this massive underground structure, we were able to adequately look at other interesting artifacts despite our time constraint – the sculpture of the goddess Minerva’s head and the Haruspex Stone (a haruspex is a special kind of priest with the special power to advise on omens) at the Temple Courtyard, Roman coins thrown into the Sacred Spring as offerings to the goddess, curses carved on rolled up sheets made of lead or pewter that were also thrown into the spring and are still there today, and ancient spa paraphernalia.

My favorite was the museum collection of objects found there that depicted the lifestyle of Bath’s inhabitants and visitors in the Roman times, including a stone head of a lady with a very curious hairstyle swept towards the face. It was apparently, very fashionable in the 1st century.

Our last stop was the gift shop that boasted of unique objects that can’t be found anywhere else. I made it my quest to find out what they were. While I did find rare items such as Roman-themed board games and home décor, as well as Jane Austen-inspired products, the rest were pretty common souvenir wares with the Bath stamp on them. They also sold beauty and wellness products exclusively distributed by the resident spa, the Thermae Bath Spa. My husband bought some puzzle sets and board games, a coffee table book, and of course, magnets.

On my mental list, I made a note of someday doing a “spa trip” in Bath. I’d spend more time to tour the Roman Baths extensively, have a two-hour therapy treatment at Thermae Bath Spa, and enjoy a cup of tea and a sconce, or an elegant dinner at The Pump Room, a striking Georgian salon where hot water spa is drawn for drinking. I heard that the perfect way to end an aristocratic meal in this fancy restaurant is to take a sip of the 43-mineral curative Bath water from its exquisite fountain…but I also heard that this water tastes horrible. This reminds me of the Buckley's Cough Syrup slogan, "It tastes awful. And it works."

Across the main bus stop was the grand Pulteney Bridge spanning the Avon River with colorful boats sailing along, which I also took pictures of. On both sides of the bridge are charming shops and cafés, but its best feature is the weir next to the bridge that creates a cascading effect and makes the river look like the water vessels are cutting through it.

As we waited for our fellow passengers, we checked out this small pastry shop just beside the spot where our bus was parked. I bought a gelato and looked at the souvenir wares while my husband asked the store owner about the ingredients of her homemade goodies, with the hope that he could eat at least one of those yummy sweets. In the end, he bought two pieces of cookies for us to try but only took a bite of his because it contained a trace amount of powdered sugar, which was bad for him. I ate the rest aboard the bus as we did a quick city tour before leaving Bath.

The most stunning piece of architecture that we saw was The Royal Crescent. It's the Georgian version of a row of townhomes, all 30 of them, terraced and laid out in a sweeping crescent, thus the name. It is a far cry from today's cookie-cutter townhomes, with its honey-coloured stone facade flanked by imposing Ionic columns and fronted by a spacious lawn that looks more like a mini-park.

Back in the 18th century, it was one of the most posh addresses in town. Today, ten units are still full-sized townhomes, eighteen units are split into flats of various sizes, and two are owned by the Royal Crescent Hotel. The units that are still occupied by the same families since the building was erected more than two centuries ago are commemorated by special plaques. Unit #1, on the other hand, has been turned into a museum, with all the rooms furnished and decorated as how it may have looked in its heyday.

Another remarkable residence is The Circus, originally called The King's Circus, a historic ring of large townhouses built between 1754 and 1768 and inspired by Stonehenge, as well as the Roman Colosseum. Its architect, John Wood the Elder, envisioned a classical Palladian landscape for the city of Bath. He used three classical orders in the building design - Greek Doric, Roman Composite, and Corinthian - one on top of the other. He also added details that were said to be Masonic symbols, emblems representing the arts and sciences (serpents, acorns, nautical elements), and tributes to ancient druids. It is also considered as Europe's first circular terrace and is actually like a colosseum turned-inside-out. Like the Royal Crescent, most of its units have been converted into various-sized flats, but some remain as single homes and are owned by famous celebrities, with Nicholas Cage as one of them.

I couldn’t help but admire Bath's elegance. The whole city certainly radiated an aura of grace. No wonder it became the favourite out-of-town royal retreat during the Georgian era. This was where London's upper crust went to escape from the stresses of city life and where they sought solitude and healing.

Most of the structures there were built of creamy warm-tone limestone and the design highlighted the stately Georgian style. I could almost imagine the aristocrats from centuries ago coming out of the imposing entrance doors in their fashionable get-ups ready to board their equally stylish carriages. Our guide pointed at false windows built in the name of architectural balance even if they had remained unused, the grand classical columns that soared as high as the residents’ ego and social status, and the high doors and ceilings stretched up to accommodate the women’s tall feathered hats atop three-foot hairdos. In my mind, I had the scenes from The Duchess and Vanity Fair movies, as well as the Jane Austen novels coming to life.

In fact, some scenes from the aforementioned period films were indeed shot there. As well, the city hosts the annual Jane Austen Festival, where for ten days, one can relive the Regency period. During this time, it would be perfectly normal to see folks meandering around the city in full Regency costume. There is also a parade and a masked ball. So, if anyone wants to make their Bridgerton fantasies come true, then visit Bath!

The rest of our drive back to London was quiet. I even fell asleep halfway until we encountered a particularly terrible traffic jam a few miles outside London. There had been an accident and there were police cars all over the place. And since it was also rush hour, the congestion was twice as bad, aside from the fact that it was London. Since there was nothing much we could do, I just went back to napping.

Photo Credits: expedia.co.uk, telegraph.co.uk, visitbath.co.uk, romanbaths.co.uk, amazingplanet.com, welcometobath.co.uk, bathchronicle.co.uk