City of Bath World Heritage Site Management Plan

APPENDIX 2 - HISTORY OF THE WORLD HERITAGE SITE 

The Foundation of Bath

1. The exact date of Bath's foundation as a settlement is not known. There has been human activity in the area since c.5000 BC but it is difficult to establish what, if any, actual settlement there was. The enclosure on Bathampton Hill to the east of the city dates from the Late Iron Age but may have been used for seasonal pasture activities rather than regular or continual inhabitancy.

2. The role of the Hot Springs as sacred before the Romans monumentalised them has some supporting evidence. During excavations of the Roman reservoir in the 1970s, a gravel and boulder causeway was discovered leading to the spring head, dating to the Late Iron Age. Around the causeway were found a number of Celtic coins. It is believed the native goddess Sulis was worshipped here, with offerings cast into the spring waters. It is known that the Romans tended to build on sites of native power or religious significance in order to establish their dominance as rulers.

Roman Bath

3. When they invaded Britain in 43 AD, the Romans moved rapidly through the country and are thought to have established a military encampment in the Bath area, traditionally supposed to be at Bathwick although substantial evidence in support of this has yet to be found. Cleveland Bridge (linking London Road to Bathwick) is the location of a natural river crossing with existing routes travelling north and south and this became the junction of four major Roman roads showing the strategic importance of the crossing.

4. The Temple of Sulis Minerva (see below) has previously been thought of as the stimulus for the development of the town of Aquae Sulis. However, the archaeological evidence from the two main areas of continued Roman occupation - the central area and the Walcot Street / London Street area - is very different and seems to relate the largely separate development of the town and the temple area.

5. In the 60s AD, the great Temple of Sulis Minerva was built. The temple precinct, including thermal healing baths, used the Hot Springs for worship, health and social interaction. The engineering feat the Romans achieved is astonishing for until the Temple was built the Springs bubbled up out of open marshes. A lead lined reservoir was built where the Springs rose and a sluice gate arrangement was put in place to cope with the amount of sand brought to the surface by the water. The spring overflow can still be seen today in the Roman Baths Museum, stained bright orange by the oxidised iron salts. The reservoir formed the sacred pool of the temple, near to the sacrificial altar which was in the courtyard of the great Classical temple building.

6. The area appears to have consisted solely of the temple and baths precinct until the 2nd century when other large public buildings were built. Development continued into the 4th and possibly 5th centuries. In the 2nd century the area, about 24 acres, may have been enclosed by an earthen bank. The stone walls, which are believed to have followed the line of the bank, were built in the 3rd or 4th centuries. It is only in the 4th century that evidence for domestic or industrial activity is found and the change seems to have been on a large scale, with buildings being erected over part of the temple precinct itself.

7. Prior to the building of the temple, there was already enough activity in the Walcot Street / London Street area to suggest a settlement was developing. Finds from the area around Cleveland Bridge date from 48-63 AD, before the temple was constructed. This location would have been supported by good communications and passing trade and the presence of a military establishment would have required goods and services. The settlement included river and street frontage and contained a mixture of timber and small masonry buildings, later to be replaced by more substantial masonry structures. Activity was both domestic and industrial. There was a cemetery unusually close into area occupied by the living (these were by law kept completely separate).

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Saxon Bath 

8. The Romans left Britain in the early 5th century and after a battle at Dyrham in 577 AD Bath was taken over by the Saxons. The Roman buildings decayed and were gradually demolished, providing building material for the Saxon town that grew. Strategically, Bath held an important location: the city sat on the political boundary between Mercia (north) and Wessex (south), two strong Saxon powers. Originally held by Mercia, the town was transferred to Wessex in the late 9th century, in the time of King Alfred.

9. The Wessex kings set about improving the defences of Bath and repaired the Roman walls that were still standing, though probably in a poor condition. In 901 AD the Witan (Saxon parliament) was held in Bath and later a mint was established. The highlight of the Saxon era was undoubtedly on 11 May, 973 AD, when Edgar was crowned first king of all England at the monastery in Bath.

10. The monastery of St. Peter was an ancient foundation, established by the mid-8th century. From the fragments of Saxon Bath that still survive, it seems that the Saxons built their religious buildings both inside and around the Roman Temple of Sulis Minerva.

11. One cemetery, believed to belong to the monastery, has been located in the precinct of the Roman Temple where the East Baths project out beneath Kingston Parade. A second has been found to the north of the King's Spring, which may have belonged to either the monastery or the nearby Saxon church replaced by the medieval church of St Mary de Stalles. The exact location of the monastery is not known but these cemeteries suggest it was close to the existing Abbey church. Though the physical remains are elusive, the reputation of the monastery was well established in the Saxon era and in 973 AD it was considered a fitting place for the crowning of Edgar.

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Norman Bath

12. Saxons stayed in the West Country until 1013, when the area surrendered to the Danish king Swein at Bath. Though the town is thought to have been largely unaffected by the arrival of the Normans in 1066, in the unsettled period that followed the death of William the Conqueror in 1088 Bath was at the centre of a plot to displace the new king William II with his brother, Robert of Normandy. The revolt was supported by the Norman bishops, whose base was at Bristol, and because Bath was largely owned by King William the town was sacked. The disruption caused by this event marked a new era in Bath's history.  

The Medieval Town

13. In 1090, John of Tours (also called de Villula) was appointed as Bishop of Wells. The new bishop decided to move his seat to the monastery church of Bath and a new era in building began. The religious complex that John of Tours planned and started to build (it was finished by Bishop Robert of Lewes who died in 1166) took up an entire quarter of the Medieval walled town.

14. The new cathedral was one of the largest of its kind in England and far larger than the 16th century Abbey church that exists today. At this time the walled town covered about 24 acres, much the same as the Roman complex, of which only 3 acres belonged to the bishop, with most of the rest belonging to the king. John of Tours paid 500 pounds for all of the king's property in Bath and the church became the largest power in the city, a power that would last for 450 years.

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King’s Bath

15. John of Tours was probably also responsible for the renovation of the King's Bath, largely demolished and then forgotten in Saxon times. A new bath was built over the Roman reservoir (though they may not have known it was there under the surface) and it was developed into quite an extensive complex with additional baths at the two other main springs, the Cross and Hot Springs. From later drawings it is apparent that there were distinct baths for healthy and diseased bathers, with areas for undressing, sheltered alcoves around the edge of the bath for resting and privacy (the baths were open to the sky) and refreshment facilities.

16. Though it is not clear how much attention was paid to the Hot Springs during Saxon times, by the 12th century the baths were well known throughout Europe for their healing properties and, as in Roman times, travellers came from far away to use them.

St John’s Hospital

17. In about 1180, the Hospital of St John the Baptist was founded by Bishop Reginald to benefit the poor of Bath and was placed under the control of the monastery. Land was given to the hospital between the Cross and Hot Baths and the city walls for the hospital buildings, and parcels of land over a wider area were granted to them for income. It seems to have been fairly standard medieval hospital with an infirmary building and a chapel at the east end. Other buildings would have been kitchen and barn and there would have been a courtyard and garden. The hospital has had a varied history, with periods of diminished prosperity, but it has always been active since its foundation.

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Late Medieval

18. With the removal of the bishopric back to Wells in 1218, the abbey church in Bath ceased to be a cathedral and returned to being a priory church for the monastery. While the town developed into a thriving wool market, the religious buildings and baths gently declined, until the town's regional market was of greater importance than either. In 1499, Bishop King decided to replace the almost ruined Norman cathedral with a new church, but by the time of the Dissolution in 1536 the church was not finished: it was gutted and left as a ruin.

The Rise of the City Corporation

19. In the 16th century, the power balance in the city changed completely. The church, which had been influential for over 400 years, was going through the unsettled period of the Dissolution and the civic authorities, in the form of the City Corporation, were gaining strength. The Letters Patent of 1552 gave the mayor and citizens of Bath all the property owned by the priory. In 1590, Queen Elizabeth compounded this when she authorised a new charter of incorporation and finally gave all the powers of the bishop and prior to the Corporation.

20. One of the most important aspects of the charter was that it extended the boundaries of the city beyond the medieval walls, to include Barton Farm and Walcot, and gave the city the potential to expand. Also as a result of the charter the abbey church, still unfinished, was reconsecrated as the parish church of St Peter and St Paul, which it remains to this day. The new status of the church meant it was the principal place of worship for the city and as such it was gradually renovated by the city authorities.

21. The baths, traditionally Crown property, had been given to the Corporation in 1552. The 16th century saw a number of publications extolling the virtues of bathing and the Corporation, realising the potential of the baths, set about renovating them. Mostly still the medieval structure, the Corporation added the Queen's Bath (originally known as the New Bath) in 1576. There were also two other baths: the Cross Bath, mainly used by diseased bathers, and the Hot Bath. The Hot Bath in particular was improved in the 16th century to 'gentrify' it. The growing number of visitors, attracted by the improved facilities, led to a greater number (and higher quality) of lodging houses. This was the start of the mass tourist trade in Bath.

22. The 17th century saw attempts to clean up the city. Bath was still small, largely confined within its walls, but had a steadily growing population. In 1643, during the Civil War (1642-9), Parliamentary forces occupying Bath were defeated by the Royalists in a battle on Lansdown Hill, just north of the city. Though the city did not expand out into the countryside during this century, it changed greatly within the walls. The two storey thatched houses were replaced with four storey tiled buildings, filling in empty spaces and defining more than ever the differences between the poor and the wealthy. Outside the walls, the city was surrounded on most sides by orchards and market gardens.

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The Beginning of Georgian Bath

23. Bath increased in popularity throughout the 1600s and in the later decades of the 17th century was established as a fashionable resort. The visits of Queen Anne in 1692 (as Princess) and then in 1702 and 1703 were seen as confirmation of the good society that was to be had in Bath and its popularity grew further. In 1700 the population was c.2000, but with the growth and popularity that followed, by 1800 this had risen to c.30,000.

24. In response to the increasing numbers of visitors, the first Pump Room was built in 1706 between the Abbey Yard and the King's Bath. As more visitors came, the city's facilities were improved which in turn brought more visitors. Pressure for land grew sharply and those who held land outside the city walls grasped the opportunity now presented to them. Trim Street (1707) was the first speculative development to breach the city walls, and areas such as Barton Farm to the north and Kingsmead to the south soon became available for expansion.

25. The arrival in Bath of Richard (Beau) Nash, Ralph Allen and John Wood hailed the city's golden era as the toast of society flocked there every year to see and be seen. Beau Nash arrived in Bath in 1704 and quickly established himself as Master of Ceremonies, imposing on society a set of rules that carved out new standards of behaviour. Ralph Allen made his fortune in developing the Postal Service and foresaw the need for building material, buying up most of the stone mines that surrounded Bath in the 1720s. John Wood was an architect whose extraordinary vision for a new city influenced development in Bath for a hundred years.

Building the New City

26. The building of Georgian Bath took roughly 125 years, starting at the beginning of the 18th century and finishing around 1825. Initially it was a response to the increasing numbers of visitors, with the first Pump Room built in 1706 on the site of the existing building and the lower Assembly Rooms in 1708 on Terrace Walk. These modest buildings were later replaced with the current examples, much grander in both style and scale, reflecting the growth during the 18th century in numbers of visitors and expectations of facilities and status.

27. The medieval town, as Bath essentially still was in 1700, was small, confined by its walls, and the buildings were almost all in the later medieval tradition with narrow streets and overhanging facades. It is very difficult now to trace this town except in the street pattern, since the Georgian rebuilding was so comprehensive and in such a different style.

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John Wood

28. Arriving in Bath in 1727, John Wood came with plans to change the face of the city forever. Though he met mixed enthusiasm and his plans were not completed, his achievements were immense, with some of the earliest and most accomplished Georgian buildings and a town planning tradition that can be seen in virtually every development in Bath until the Victorian era. Wood's example was followed by many different architects, both during his lifetime and after his death, with the result that the town expanded very rapidly.

Bath Stone

29. Despite so many different architects working independently, Bath has a rare visual homogeneity. This is due partly to John Wood's influence but largely to the almost wholesale use of Bath stone, from the mines around the city. This oolitic limestone has been used at least since Roman times for building in Bath and the quarries and mines grew up close to the city at Combe Down and Odd Down and other places such as Box.

30. Ralph Allen's reasons for buying the stone mines in the 1720s were not so much to supply the city with building material but to promote its use in London, where he hoped to rival the pre-eminence of Portland. Allen was not successful in this plan, but after his death stone from Combe Down was used at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. The availability of the stone locally has given a harmony to Bath's buildings that spans two thousand years of changing styles and techniques.

Georgian Architecture

31. The highlights of architecture in Bath must be the crescents and terraces, particularly where they were built on the hills above the old city to make use of the views and countryside setting. John Wood did not work in isolation; there were many architects active in the 18th century, the majority of them local to Bath. The topography of the city was a challenge and it dictated much of the method of building and affected the continuous line of the terraces as they climbed up the steep hills.

32. For the bigger projects such as Queen Square and the Circus, huge amounts of earth were moved in attempts to level the sites. At Camden Crescent, the instability of Beacon Hill resulted in the collapse of the western end of the crescent and only the houses built on solid rock could be completed. Terrace design became more sophisticated throughout the century, particularly in dealing with the slopes. John Pinch's work of the 1820s, the last of the great terraces to be built, cleverly incorporated the inclines into the decorative finish of the design.

33. The impact of the 18th century on the city, both physical and visual, was enormous. The scale of the rebuild spared very few of the medieval buildings, though more material may survive behind the facades. Visually the city was transformed. The expansion of the city was rapid, climbing the slopes of Lansdown and stretching out east and west into the countryside.

34. The design of the town houses had a significant physical impact on the city. The 18th century roads are built on vaults, connected to the basements of the houses on either side of the street: the excavation of these basements and vaults has compromised much of the medieval archaeology of Bath. New roads such as Union and Bath Streets (c.1790) were cut through existing rows of buildings, altering parts of the medieval street pattern and others were widened and refronted.

35. Bath's position as a society favourite was in part due to its gambling establishments, of which Beau Nash was both a great supporter and regulator. The waters were still used for drinking and bathing but Bath's main attraction was self-perpetuating: society gathered there to be part of fashionable society. The season lengthened from a few weeks to six months and was an essential part of high society's calendar. The city became dependant on the tourists for its wealth: the number of visitors increased by ten times during the 18th century.

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The Decline in Popularity

36. Towards the end of the century, Bath's popularity with the aristocracy dwindled and the nature of the visitors changed from high society to the emerging middle classes. More people began to retire to Bath and it became safe rather than exciting. New anti-gambling laws and the death of Beau Nash added to the decline.

37. Physical expansion came to an abrupt halt in 1793 with the financial crisis brought on by the war with France. This led directly to several schemes going unfinished, most notably perhaps Great Pulteney Street, the suburbs of which were never built, leaving the main street in relative isolation. When stability returned in the 1820s, building energy was channelled into the newly popular semi-detached villas. The population continued to grow quickly and Bath's reputation became that of a quiet refined resort, in architecturally excellent surroundings.

Victorian Changes

38. One of the greatest changes the Victorians wrought on Bath was the introduction of the railway and its grandiose architecture. Isambard Kingdom Brunel constructed the Great Western Railway Paddington to Bristol line with fine viaducts, bridges and stations and southern Bath in particular was affected, though the style of these structures was carefully designed to relate to the style and grandeur of the architecture of Bath. There were many architects who, whilst adopting Victorian architectural advances and stylistic preferences, also continued to work in harmony with the buildings of Georgian Bath, thus adding greatly to the visual homogeneity of the present city. Several architects, such as Henry Goodridge (1797-1864), were prolific and were influential in the development of the city in the mid-later 19th century. The Victorians also made many smaller alterations to the Georgian city as technology progressed, particularly with the introduction of plate glass in windows.

39. The highlight of the Victorian era was the rediscovery of the Roman Baths complex, with the remains of the Great Bath found in 1880, most of which was achieved through the determination of Major Davis, City Surveyor of Work and architect. New baths were built at the western end of this complex allowing visits to the remains which the city saw as an opportunity to prop up their flagging tourist trade. The Pump Room extension, the Concert Hall, was completed by 1897 and the same architect was then employed to extend the Guildhall and add to it the Victoria Art Gallery. The last large Victorian addition to the city was the Empire Hotel. Bath's popularity as a tourist destination did improve in the first decades of the 20th century, but it was not to recover the social status it had enjoyed throughout the 1700s.

20th Century

40. In 1930, before similar Government legislation was prepared, Bath developed a prototype Green Belt based on a Regional Plan written by Patrick Abercrombie and BF Brueton. The plan highlighted the special quality of the landscape around Bath and the need to conserve its character and prevent 'straggling development'. These restrictions were incorporated into a Bath and District Planning Scheme in 1933.

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Bomb Damage

41. On 25 and 26 April 1942, Bath was hit by bombs as part of the World War II Baedeker raids. The suburbs felt most of the damage, with a few notable exceptions such as the gutted Assembly Rooms (newly refurbished by the National Trust in 1938) and the destroyed south side of Queen Square. Large swathes of artisan buildings in the west and south of the city were lost, in highly residential areas such as Oldfield Park and Kingsmead. The higher status Georgian buildings were largely restored but the artisan suburbs were generally cleared and redeveloped.

Town Planning

42. In 1945, Sir Patrick Abercrombie wrote his Plan for Bath, a proposal for city-wide development to replace the war damage and move into a new era of town planning. This document, in parts far sighted though largely unrealised, furthered the Green Belt concept and planned for residential developments inside the existing city boundary. It recognised the desirability of retaining Bath's visual link to surrounding countryside and promoted better standards for residential housing and the incorporation of green open spaces and community facilities.

43. Further to the early Green Belt provision, Bath saw the first jointly funded grant scheme in the country between central government and the city council, to grant aid historic building conservation. In 1955/6 the Bath Town Scheme offered grants for the cleaning of the stone facades of the Circus.

44. Planning controls, however, were altering and the emphasis on incorporating landscape design into new developments was lost. Despite its early protection of Green Belt and participation in the post-war designed landscapes, Bath fell victim to the country-wide blight of wholesale historic building destruction. 18th and 19th century suburbs were cleared in their entireties resulting in the huge loss of fine architecture. The replacement developments no longer considered landscape design as a necessary or even desirable feature. Bath lost much of its historic artisan buildings during this period. The conservation movement that formed in response to the destruction of historic buildings, and the success it achieved in stopping that destruction, helped to influence national attitudes to historic buildings.

45. By the later 1960s, changes in attitude were emerging. Studies were undertaken into the management of traffic and development specifically in historic towns. Gradually an improvement took place, and more thought was put into redevelopment showing a growing awareness of the issues involved in modern life in an historic town.

This page is maintained by Abigail Harrap, Abigail_Harrap@bathnes.gov.uk and 01225 477581