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The churches, apart from St Mary’s, all date from the
19th century period of religious revival, reflecting not
only the wealth of the town but also, in many cases, its
connections with those followers of the Arts and Crafts
Movement who set up their workshops in the
surrounding Cotswold countryside: All Saints, for
instance, is a treasure house of 19th and early 20th
century craftsmanship, notably containing stained glass
by Edward Burne-Jones, close friend and collaborator of
William Morris. Not to be missed are the caryatids in
Montpellier. The town’s most famous images are based
on those on Athens’ Acropolis.
Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum
The museum (above) houses a nationally designated Arts and
Crafts collection which includes furniture, art, pottery and silver
by many of the pioneers of the Movement, as well as the
Edward Wilson Gallery celebrating the life of the famous
Cheltenham-born polar explorer who perished with
Scott on his ill-fated Antarctic expedition.
Its costumes and textiles, applied and decorative arts, painting
and porcelain collections are also of the highest quality,
reflecting as they do the generosity of benefactors who retired
to Cheltenham following service to the Empire in India and the
east – in the 1900s the town was referred to as “the Anglo-
Indian’s Paradise”!
Holst Birthplace Museum
This was where the famous
musician and composer of
The Planets was born in 1874. The
Pittville Pump Room
house in Clarence Road (right) is
The most magnificent architectural feature of Regency
much as it was when he was a
Cheltenham is undoubtedly the colonnaded and domed
child in the 1870s, a rare example
pump room (above). It is the only complete survivor of
of a Victorian-Edwardian family
many – others having been demolished or found new
home complete with the
uses (Lloyds TSB Bank in Montpellier is little changed
furnishings of the period. Holst’s
except, of course, in function!). But the Pump Room
piano and original music scores
(below) is where you can get a real sense of how it all
can still be viewed and there is a
began: a magnificently austere, Grecian-style building,
specialist shop with a wide choice
surrounded by the imposing Italianate villas of the
of recordings of his works.
wealthy and overlooking the picturesque gardens and
Don’t miss the new statue of
ornamental lakes of Pittville Park. The Pump Room was
Gustav Holst in Imperial Gardens.
designed for balls and entertainments and, of course,
the taking of medicinal waters. Today it is the setting
for many such occasions, especially at Festival time.
Visitors can still sample the waters at the surviving
original pump – if they have a strong palate! –
but should check in advance in case the
building is closed for a
special event.
5
www.VisitCheltenham.info
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