Royal Crescent

The Royal Crescent is the most celebrated piece of Georgian architecture in England. John Wood the Younger designed and built it between 1767 and 1774: 30 terraced houses arranged in a sweeping arc of 500 feet, facing a private lawn that slopes away toward the city below. The facade is unified by a continuous row of 114 Ionic columns running the full length of the crescent, and the Bath stone from which it is built takes the colour of honey in afternoon sun. The exterior is free to walk along the full length of the curve, which takes about 5 minutes. No. 1 Royal Crescent (the far left house when facing the crescent) is a museum that recreates the interior of a Georgian townhouse as it would have been in the 1770s: the furniture, fabrics, tableware, and room arrangements are period-accurate, and the house gives a precise picture of how the wealthy elite of the Bath season actually lived. Entry to No. 1 Royal Crescent is GBP 12.50 for adults. The private lawn in front of the crescent belongs to the Royal Crescent Society and requires a key: the public path runs along the outside of the iron railing. The best light on the facade is late afternoon (the western exposure catches the last sun of the day).