Bath is architecturally one of the most beautiful (and consistent) of England's cities, with nearly every building of note in the Georgian neoclassical style, executed in honey-coloured stone (and, more often than not, wreathed in flowers). The stone was originally blindingly white (as Jane Austen complained), but has since yellowed. It also feels more spacious and European than most English towns, with open squares and pedestrian-friendly streets.
The Pump Room, which appears in both Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, now houses a tea shop and restaurant.
The exterior of the Roman Baths themselves.
Bath Abbey. Note the two ladders on which strangely contorted angels ascend and descend the church front.
The Great Bath, open to the sky. The layer of brick at the bottom is what remains of the Roman structure, which served as the foundation for later construction.
The King's Spring in the Pump Room, from which one may partake of water from the hot spring for 50p. I did so and was pleasantly surprised; it wasn't actually good, but it was far less awful than I had expected.
The elegant interior of the Pump Room.
The new Jane Austen Centre. When I had last visited Bath in 1996, it was simply a small shop of Austen memorabilia, but it is now a full-blown museum. Its recent provenance, however, means that it contains few genuine relics of Austeniana, instead relying on recreations and copies, as well as constumes and such from the various films. It was still quite interesting, though of course not nearly as much so as the house at Chawton.
The Circus, long one of the most fashionable places to live in Bath.
The Assembly Rooms, which now house the wonderful Museum of Costume.
The Assembly Rooms ballroom, with high windows to allow ventilation without letting the rabble observe the action.
The Assembly Rooms tea and card room, for those uninclined to dance.
The Royal Crescent overlooking Royal Victoria Park, another posh location.
A park along the River Avon, where I sat and read Middlemarch in the sunshine once I had exhausted Bath's attractions.
The River Avon.
Pulteney Bridge over the River Avon, lined with shops in the Italian manner.
4, Sydney Street. Of the many residences the Austen family had in Bath (they moved frequently as their fortunes declined after Rev. Austen's death), this was Jane's favourite, and the one where they stayed the longest.
One of the reasons Jane preferred this location was its proximity to Sydney Gardens, which evoked the countryside in which she had spent most of her life.
A view of the gardens with Jane's block of houses in the background.
The River Avon.
Another view of Pulteney Bridge and the River Avon.
