Although lying well off the tourist trail, the streets behind the Circus and the Royal Crescent have some fascinating stories to tell, says Andrew Swift.
Despite bombing in 1942 and redevelopment in the 1960s, so much survives in Bath’s Upper Town that this walk, less than a mile long, can touch on just a few of its hidden histories.
It starts in St James’s Square, built between 1790 and 1793, which has hardly changed since. No 35, in the south-east corner, bears two plaques – one telling us that Walter Savage Landor lived here, the other that Charles Dickens dwelt here. The choice of words is significant. Landor, a once celebrated writer whose star has faded, lived here from 1837 to 1844. Dickens was invited to dinner here in February 1840, although he did not stay the night, opting to book into the York House Hotel instead. For the Dickens enthusiasts of Bath, however, that was enough to claim that he ‘dwelt’ here.
Through the archway beside the house is Curiosity Cottage, once a shop. Dickens was working on The Old Curiosity Shop when he visited Landor and claimed to have come up with the character of Little Nell while discussing it with him over dinner. This gave rise to the story that he based the character of Little Nell on a girl he saw working in this shop – hence the name.
If you carry on past it you emerge in St James’s Place, once home to a range of tradesmen. The row of buildings on the east side, however, was demolished around 1950, leaving only the shop further along, now a launderette but once a butcher’s, where rails and hooks for hanging meat still survive, along with some ornate carvings.
When you leave St James’s Place, you will see St James’s Wine Vaults opposite. Opened in 1791, it was once one of dozens of pubs in this part of town.
As you turn left, the drum-like building ahead, on the other side of Julian Road, is the back entrance to the Royal Crescent Hotel and dates from 1986. As you round the corner, if you look up you will see how the end house narrows almost to a point, with a ghost sign at the back.
Head over the zebra crossing and cross to a wide patch of grass, once the site of St Andrew’s church. Designed in the 1860s by George Gilbert Scott, it had a 67-metre spire – 18 metres higher than the abbey. After being damaged by bombing, it was eventually demolished in 1960.
On the far side of the grass, cross to head east along Rivers Street. Nos 1-3, on the left, fell victim to bombing and are complete rebuilds. Much of this part of Bath was designed by John Wood the Younger. He started acquiring parcels of land to build Rivers Street in 1766, but, although he got his hands on most of what he needed, a plot of land partway along was leased to two local builders, Thomas and James Beale, instead. That is why Nos 12-15, on the north side, and Nos 48-50 opposite, look so different. It also explains why No 15 is, and always has been, a pub – the Chequers – something that would not have featured in Wood’s plans.
On the corner of Gloucester Street is one of Bath’s most intriguing ghost signs, with no less than three sets of lettering surviving – albeit only partially – from when it was a grocer’s. Carrying on along Rivers Street, you come to No 30, on the left, with its canted bay designed as an eye catcher for anyone looking up Russel Street from the Assembly Rooms.
At the end, cross Julian Road to the car park in front of Christ Church, which was built in 1798. The long building facing it is what remains of an 18th-century riding school. Looking back across the road, on the roof of No 32 you will notice a rare survival – stone tiles like those once found on most of Bath’s buildings. To the right, at the end of Rivers Street, is another ghost sign, for the Red House Bakery.
Heading up steps by the former riding school, you come to a former Royal Tennis Court, built in 1777. Over the years it has served as pin factory, malthouse, school and leather factory, but today it houses the Museum of Bath at Work, where a fascinating series of displays chronicles the city’s social and industrial history.
Turn left to go through an archway into Morford Street, cross and go downhill before turning right along Julian Road. The area to your right was once covered by rows of terraced houses that were demolished in the 1960s.
There was once another riding school on the west corner of Burlington Street. In 1852, after it had closed, it was converted to a Roman Catholic chapel, which in 1881 was demolished and replaced by St Mary’s church. The car park behind it, which you will see as you walk up Burlington Street, was originally an exercise ring for the riding school. It later became a playground for the former school on the far side.
At the top of Burlington Street is Portland Place, built around 1786. The double ramp, flanked by obelisks, gave sedan chairmen access to the high pavement. The attic storey on Nos 6-8 was added when Bath High School was established here in 1875. As you turn right, you pass the site of a lost pub, the Portland Arms, pulled down in 1969, in the space on your right.
Continue through an archway and turn left to find one of Bath’s most curious architectural features, a column topped by a finial, dating from around 1970 and replacing a similar one erected around 1905. At the top, look over the wall to see the ruins of houses that once lined the road.
Turn left up Lansdown Road, where more Georgian buildings once stood. All disappeared in the late 1960s, the bulldozers only falling silent when they reached Spencer’s Belle Vue, a delightfully eclectic range of buildings memorable chiefly because the stonemason had to correct a spelling mistake after carving its name.
As you continue uphill, the oldest building on the walk – Lansdown Grove Hotel, built around 1740 as Sandpit House, and twice enlarged since – comes into view. Just past the zebra crossing, turn left down a footpath. After going down steps at the bottom, turn right and take the second left down Northampton Street. The buildings on the right originally ran downhill without a break, but bombing took a heavy toll. Below No 11, a fragment of the doorway of No 10 survives. Above it can be seen the brick lining which elsewhere is hidden behind Bath stone. Several houses further down are complete rebuilds. No 4, however, one of those that survived, is another lost pub – the Dark Horse, closed in 2007.
Andrew Swift has written books such as On Foot in Bath: Fifteen Walks around a World Heritage City (akemanpress.com).