Friday, May 20, 2022

The Royal Crescent

                                                           

                                  Like the draft of my new novel, this is not an inspiring start.

                        Stan sends his regards, he's up the Danube with very little internet 

                                                     and has recovered from Crimefest.



This is getting a little more regal now.
You can imagine Jane Austen clattering away on her MacBook.


                                                      

                                         One of the pieces of garden furniture on the parkland.



The crescent!

If you added dogs to this, it would seem a perfect life.

One of the iconic images of British architecture is the  Royal Crescent in Bath, Somerset, England. We sloped off there for 48 hours after Bristol as we had no home to go to, as the builders were taking over for a final push to get the floors level. (Long Story!)

The Royal Crescent was built in 1774, it’s now a Georgian Grade 1 listed building and was designed by architect John Wood the younger.

                                                   

                                                              Bits of parkland!

There are thirty terraced houses in the 500 feet long building with 114 columns. Number One is now owned by the trust that looks after the historic buildings in Bath,  while the middle two are a Spa and Resort Hotel, the rest are in private ownership and have been divided up or knocked through. The listed status means that there’s not much that can be permitted to change the outside of the building. There was a court battle when one resident painted her front door yellow. A successful ban was put on the Hop On Hop Off tourist bus from going close to the crescent as the commentary on the open topped version disturbed the residents.

                                            

                                                      You can just about see the Ha -ha.


Suggestions of floodlighting and planning permission for a swimming pool were both rejected.

It's supposed to overlook park land – some grass with a few trees but given that Bath is on a hill, and the terrace sits at the top, the view must be pretty something. Especially from the rooms in the attic with their own wee terrace. They reminded me of that scene in The Omen.

                                                        

                                                             I'd call  Ha ha a retaining wall.....

There’s also a  collection of buildings known as The Circus. They were designed by John Wood, the Elder and are linked to the Crescent by a small road known as Brock Street, brock being an old English word for badger. Maybe because the street had a white stripe down the middle.

                                                            

                                                                    It's bigger than my house but I have more scaffolding!


                                                         

                                                                    More parkland art

I found this on Wikipeadia as I had heard of the Royal Crescent Ha-ha but had no idea what it was;

“In front of the Royal Crescent is a ha-ha, a ditch on which the inner side is vertical and faced with stone, with the outer face sloped and turfed, making an effective but invisible partition between the lower and upper lawns. The ha-ha is designed so as not to interrupt the view from Royal Victoria Park, and to be invisible until seen from close by.”

So now you know.

Loads of famous persons had lived here but the only one I had heard of was  Issac Pitman,  the shorthand guy.

The crescent has appeared in many TV programmes and films. Most recently a hot air balloon crashes there in an episode of MacDonald and Dodds.

The Wrong Box,  Catch Us If You Can and The Duchess are a few of the films while the 2007 TV adaptation of Persuasion  had many scenes shot  on location at the crescent, and in 2014, the hotel was used in Our Girl.

We looked in a few estate agents windows. Bath is an eye wateringly expensive place to live.

The most recent property we could find for sale was one of the four story original townhouses. Price tag? Offers in the region off £7.5 million.

I thought about it. For 7.5 milli seconds.

C


4 comments:

  1. If you lived in Bath, you wouldn't be the same crime writer. For one thing, your fingertips would be too crinkly to type.

    How has Agnes been getting on with the builders? A story for another blog perhaps.

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    1. Agnes had a go at them while we were away - they heard somebody walking around upstairs, the door opened and closed. There was nobody there. The builder was so spooked he phoned us!

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  2. 7.5 Million--and no swimming pool? Now that's a true Ha-Ha!!!

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    Replies
    1. I thought ha ha was something to do with Lord Haw Haw but that was quite different....

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