Bath time Immerse yourself in history at Georgian spa city
For our Holidays at Home feature this week, Eugene Byrne can offer you plenty of reasons for spending a day or two or three drinking in all the historical treats (but not the waters) of Bath
AT the time of writing, we’re still not sure if most Covid safety measures are going to be lifted on June 21, and even if they are, relatively few of us will be taking holidays abroad much before the autumn, if that.
But this works two ways; there should be fewer overseas visitors to the UK this year, so it’s a sporting bet that many heritage attractions will be a little less crowded this year.
Now’s a good time to see some of the big museums in London, for instance (though until June 21, if not later, you’ll almost certainly have to book in advance).
But you don’t even need to go that far. The fair Georgian city just along the A4 is open for business and it’s an ideal time to visit, revisit or take the family to.
It’s a very short train ride from Temple Meads, with very frequent services in daytime, or if you’re driving there are good park and ride facilities (Newbridge and Lansdown if you’re coming from Bristol).
(NB: Don’t drive into the middle of Bath. You’ll regret it.)
Why should you visit Bath this summer? Here are just a few reasons:
The Roman Baths
The one place in Bath nobody should miss; actually the one place in Bath that few visitors do miss, racking up something like a million customers each year before the pandemic.
It’s not cheap either; full price adult admission comes in at a hefty £25 this summer (prices vary according to time of year), but with social distancing and maybe fewer overseas tourists, this year might be a good opportunity to get a better look round than at normal times.
The spring waters are the whole reason the Romans developed the place, though the Ancient Britons knew all about it before the imperialist oppressors came along.
It might not be the best-preserved Roman site in Europe, but even if you’ve done the tourist thing in Italy you’ll realise it’s one of the best-interpreted.
With the aid of your audio-guide (for which they’ve won awards), you get taken through the remains and a selection of extraordinarily vivid finds (such as the votive offerings from people calling curses down on their enemies), and out into the open air and the magnificent Great Bath.
You get stories of the people who once lived here, via artefacts and video projections onto the walls, and it pulls it all off with enormous flair, being populist but never dumbed down.
It’s one of the few historic places you come out of feeling as though you really do know more than when you went in; a truly world-class heritage site.
Admission also gets you into the 18th-century Pump Room, built for the wealthy visitors during Bath’s golden age. It’s now a restaurant and café. Under normal circumstances you would also be able to imbibe a glass of actual Bath water in the Pump Room, but it’s not available at the moment. Don’t be too disappointed as it’s horrible and tastes like, well, bath water.
» The Roman Baths entrance is via Abbey Church Yard, BA1 1LZ. All admissions must be booked in advance. Booking and details at www.romanbaths.co.uk
The Fashion Museum and Assembly Rooms
Another of Bath’s A-list attractions, and understandably so. The permanent collection shows the history of fashionable dress from the past few hundred years; it’s not just the 18th century stuff – many visitors will like the really evocative clothes from the 1960s and 70s.
Other attractions include a Dress of the Year chosen especially by fashion experts for the museum every year since its foundation in 1963. (Some of this year’s crop look decidedly odd, with one particularly un-glamorous nod to the pandemic.)
Even hairy-chested chaps who profess no curiosity about clothes find the place more interesting than they anticipate, and your ticket gets you into the splendid Assembly Rooms as well, where the crème de la crème got together in days of yore for dancing, cardplaying, tea-drinking and marrying their children off.
The star temporary exhibition this year is Shoephoria!, a wonderful display of shoes, sneakers, slippers and boots – 350 pairs – selected from the museum’s own collection as well as items borrowed for the show.
You can see shoes worn by folk such as Noel Coward, Ginger Rogers and Margaret Lockwood; ballerinas Margot Fonteyn and Alicia Markova (and Nicola Adams in Strictly Come Dancing 2020).
From the oldest shoes in the collection – a pair of red velvet mules from the 1690s – to sneakers and trainers from the 2000s, you get a close-up look at the various styles that make up the history of footwear.
Actually, it does go back a little earlier than the 1690s, with the soles of Roman shoes found in archaeological excavations in Walcot Street in Bath.
These are set alongside prostheses and trainers worn by modernday Bath resident Harmonie-Rose Allen, who lost her limbs after contracting meningitis as a baby, and the display follows her progress from Peppa Pig prosthetic limbs to her first blades – which are both leg and shoe in one.
It also acknowledges modern times in showcasing “vegan” alternatives with shoes which don’t use animal skins for fashion footwear, including bright red platform sandals worn by Miley Cyrus in a 2017 Cosmopolitan cover shoot, and
which are made of recycled plastic bottle tops.
» The Fashion Museum & Assembly Rooms are on Bennett Street, Bath BA1 2QH and all admissions must be booked in advance. Further information and tickets at fashionmuseum.co.uk
The American Museum & Gardens
Claverton Manor used to be one of those grand country houses (Winston Churchill made his first ever political speech here), but in 1961 it became The American Museum in Britain, housing the collection of American decorative and domestic arts amassed by a pair of wealthy collectors, Dallas Pratt and John Judkyn.
Many visitors come away from the museum somewhat perplexed because our ideas of what’s “American” are skewed by Hollywood, rock ‘n’ roll, Coca-Cola, capitalism and maybe a side-order of the Civil Rights movement.
But what this place gives you is furniture, beds, quilts and the more genteel aspects of domestic American life, and while it includes some Native American objects, much of it is from 18th and 19th century New England.
It’s an interesting and necessary antidote to our stereotyped views derived from the more rackety aspects of American history.
That said, it has a large and separate gallery devoted to temporary exhibitions which are often precisely about the popular culture side, and this year’s looks like a real treat. This is Shooting Stars, a series of rare behind-the-scenes photos of some of the world’s most iconic rock stars and actors taken during the 1970s.
The show runs until the end of October and features 63 intimate pictures taken in Britain and the US by 1970s model, actress and “It Girl” Carinthia West and includes shots of Mick Jagger, Ronnie Wood, George Harrison, Eric Idle, Shelley Duvall, Helen Mirren, Neil Young, and Anjelica Huston, among others.
West was “discovered” as a model aged 16 when standing at a bus stop on the King’s Road in London by Beatles’ photographer Robert Whitaker.
Her modelling career introduced her to those she worked alongside, so she decided to take her own camera on set and keep a visual diary from then on.
If all this isn’t enough, the American Museum is set in extensive grounds, with a recently designed landscape garden, an arboretum of American trees, and wonderful views across the Limpley Stoke Valley.
As it’s out on the edge of the city, this is one of the few top Bath attractions you can drive to.
» The American Museum & Gardens is at Claverton Manor, Bath BA2 7BD. Visits do not usually need to be pre-booked, but check before setting off. Full information at americanmuseum. org