City of Bath (3)

In this final post with respect to my day trip to Bath, I shall make a few comments on what I call the 'arc architecture zone' of Bath and conclude this series with a few more inane comments.

What is this Arc Architecture zone? Within a space of a few hundred meters, one can find two impressive examples of architecture, one of which is circular in shape, reminiscent of Circus Maximus, (which I have seen only in comics describing the Adventures of Asterix), and hence termed "Circus". Several English luminaries, including Lord Clive of India resided in this all important circus (pardon the pun). While the centre of Circus Maximus would have seen Obelix bashing up the lions and in the event of a less well-covered person being the centre of attraction, the lions gobbling up this person, this circus is more serene and sedate, with a little green space and a tree marking the centre of the circle defining the construction.

The second building was constructed following the successful completion of the Circus and built in the 1760s - does not matter, at least to me, when exactly. This building is called the Royal Crescent and is the most privileged address in all Bath; and as one might imagine, only the really wealthy can afford to own this address. Royal Crescent 1 is a museum maintained by a private body called the Bath Preservation Trust and is dedicated to exhibiting the various features of an aristocratic home in Georgian England. Royal Crescent 1 was some sort of an inn where the wealthy would stay with their sons and daughters of marriageable age; the bringing together of so many wealthy eligibles would have resulted in a number of honorable unions one would expect; but to me, living in this Georgian house would not have been a pleasurable experience. Why? Simply because there was no plumbing available to that building in those days and some specially constructed cupboards served the purpose of toilets! Ladies had to bring water in pails from the river Avon, a mile away and I cannot imagine the feelings of the slaves whose duty it was to keep these cupboards clean!

Coming back from Georgian toilets, what experiences of mine can I share with you here? The first thing that struck me was the politeness of the person at the ticket counter who informed me that photography was not permitted inside the museum. The contrast it represented, with the manner in which this obnoxious chap at Mahabalipuram 'informed' me that tripods were not to be used there, prompting me to not resist the temptation to present a rude retort, was striking. In this museum, every room was populated by an individual who, with the exception of one old lady who did not seem to know much, made it a point to describe to every visitor, salient aspects of what one saw before him / her. One of the ladies was particularly well informed and made a lot of comments on what might have been the life of those who took residence there. Yet another old lady, manning yet another room, and with such wrinkles on her face as would have contributed more than ideal features to a black and white portrait photograph, must have felt lonely for she chose to talk to us a lot on Georgian life; it was she who made it a point to stress on the lack of plumbing in the house in those days, and thanked modernity for having provided the house with good water supply today. She might have been partially hard of hearing, as she kept misinterpreting any question that my friend asked of her; nevertheless, she was as interesting and as genial and as informative as they come - possibly she is from the Georgian age!

With that I would just list a few places that we did not give the attention it deserved or did not visit at all. One is Walcott street, with a range of strange shops, including an antique and a glass-blowers that are worth visiting - both these places were closed for the day by the time we managed to get there. Other places include a series of museums; a couple that attracted my attention were a museum in honour of this chap who first discovered Uranus and said something of having seen farther into space than anyone else and a postal museum situated near where the first ever stamped snail mail was sent!!

With that, I rest my case in favour of Bath!






The Circus











Royal Crescent











No. 1 Royal Crescent














A scene on Wallcott street















A scene off Wallcott street