ARCHITECTURE AND HISTORY OF ROYAL CRESCENT

This is John Wood the Younger’s masterpiece, a piece of architecture unmatched anywhere else in Europe, which formed a fitting climax to the sequence of architectural ensembles, created by the Woods.

The first house No 1 was built for Thomas Brock, its foundation stone laid in 1767 and it is from the road of his name that one should approach the crescent to see the full magnificence when the great sweep of Ionic columns suddenly become apparent.

Work continued for eight years before all the houses were ready to house some 30 wealthy families and many appear to have been built for speculative investment by small groups of associated craftsmen such as plasterer Charles Cole, John Ford, statuary, plus builders Sampson Parsons and Robert Cummings.

The thirty houses although varying in size and plan, present a uniform frontage and are arranged around a great lawn to form a semi-elliptical line of building with a major axis of 538 feet and contain some 114 Ionic columns regularly spaced, apart from two double pillars which mark almost invisibly the centre.

Despite destruction by enemy action of the interiors of two houses and the substitution of slates for the original stone tiling plus the removal of most of the glazing bars, the Royal Crescent remains one of the least changed of the great Bath buildings.

It has over the years housed many famous residents including the Grand old Duke of York… Sir Isaac Pitman, known by secretaries around the world as the inventor of shorthand… Sir Percy Blakeney who was reputed to be The Scarlet Pimpernel… novelist Christopher Anstey resided at No 5 and Elizabeth Linley who was Sheridan’s wife resided at No 11 plus the most influential critic and historian of his day George Saintsbury lived until his death in 1933 at No 1A.

Two occupants of No 8 were involved in a duel at dawn using pistols and swords at Claverton Down after apparently quarrelling over cards, John Baptiste du Barre died from wounds received by his combat with Count Rice in 1778, the ivory hilt of the sword now attached to the city seal.

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