Bath
The American Museum, Claverton n MORE TEMPTATIONS IN BATH m
t Bath Literature Festival (Feb-March) and Bath International Music Festival (May-June) are annual events that take place in venues across the city. For dates and details contact Tourist Information: Tel: 0844 847 5257;
www.visitbath.co.uk. t Bath Postal Museum. Discover how mail was delivered and what life was like on a Victorian Mail Coach. The very first Penny Black – the first postage stamp in the world – was sent from Bath on 2 May 1840. Tel: (01225) 460333;
www.bathpostalmuseum.org. t Lucknam Park Hotel (5 star). This Palladian mansion, just outside Bath, offers country house living, complete with a relaxing spa, Michelin star dining, and equestrian centre. Tel: (01225) 742 777;
www.lucknampark.co.uk. t Margaret’s Buildings. Tucked away behind the Royal Crescent, this delightful little alley has some fascinating fashion, interior design and gift shops for browsing. t Museum of Bath At Work. The J Bowler Collection of everything industrial, ranging from cabinet making to cars,
Top left: Sally Lunn's house, museum and tea shop on North Parade Passage. Top rentre: Sham Castle, an 18th- century folly on Bathwick Hill. Above: The newly refurbished Theatre Royal
get a thing in five minutes,” says Mrs Allen, in Northanger Abbey. Today there are thousands of shops to choose from, many tucked away down tiny alleys. Wander down Milsom Street to find Jolly’s, an antique department store, and Prince Charles’s Highgrove shop, full of beautiful silver, wooden toys, and gardening accessories. For antiques and crafts, head for the more bohemian
Walcot Street, where there’s a Saturday bric-a-brac market, and pop into The Saracen’s Head, the city’s oldest pub. Bath has everything from top fashion designers and Culpeper Herbalists to the tiny boutiques clustered round Abbey Green. I particularly loved the toyshop on the green crammed full of old-fashioned games and books. Sightseeing is a hungry business and I made short work
of two Bath Buns in the newly opened Tea Shoppe on the Green. Sugar and currant coated, they were deliciously moist. Nearby you will find Sally Lunn’s House and Museum, the oldest house in Bath, dating back to 1482 and offering equally delectable cakes and buns.
52 BRITAIN
fizzy-pop bottles to fittings for ocean liners. Tel: (01225) 318348;
www.bath-at-work.org.uk. t Museum of East Asian Art. One of the most comprehensive collections of its kind in Britain, showcasing ceramics and jade, metal and lacquerware, with a special emphasis on China. Tel: (01225) 464640;
www.meaa.org.uk. t Royal Crescent Hotel (5 star). Spectacularly located, and in impeccably elegant style, this luxury hotel offers period architecture and a secluded garden. Tel: (01225) 823333;
www.royalcrescent.co.uk. t SouthGate Bath is the chic new shopping centre just by Bath Spa station, eight years in the building, and now boasting all the top high street stores. t The Theatre Royal. First opened in 1805 and now newly restored, this is one of the prettiest theatres in Britain. Tel: (01225) 448844;
www.theatreroyal.org.uk.
t If calling from overseas, dial your international code, then 44, and then omit the first zero.
Bath Abbey is very peaceful after the hurly-burly of the
high street. Built on Saxon remains, the present abbey was founded at the turn of the 16th century, and has flying buttresses, beautiful stained glass windows and carved oak pews. The West Front is beautifully carved with angels on ladders, olive trees and the Holy Trinity. When I visited Bath, the Holburne Museum, with its
collection of 9,000 objects and works of art, was closed for expansion and refurbishment. It reopens in May with Peter Blake: A Museum for Myself, followed by Gainsborough’s Landscapes: Themes and Variations in September. The Holburne stands on Great Pulteney Street, once the
grandest thoroughfare in Bath, and a great favourite with Jane Austen and her friends. It seemed a good place to conclude my visit to beautiful Bath.
For more details on what to see and where to stay in Bath, visit
www.visitbath.co.uk. Tourist Information Centre: Abbey Chambers, Abbey Churchyard, Bath; tel: 0844 847 5257.
www.britain-magazine.com
PHOTO: JAYAWARDENE/VISIT BRITAIN/VISIT BATH
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