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The History of The Royal
Crescent
The Royal Crescent is an architectural
masterpiece by any standards. The Royal Crescent Hotel at its
heart has to be the finest location of all Bath hotels with its
beautiful 'secret' gardens, its fabulous spa, its renowned restaurant
and the luxuriously wonderful accommodation.
Begun in 1767 by John Wood
the Younger, the crescent took eight years to complete and included
some of the grandest houses in Bath. John Wood was utterly determined
that his masterpiece should present a prospect of total uniformity
and understated gracefulness. His sweeping vision and scrupulous
attention to every detail has created a great elliptical curve
almost fifty feet high and five hundred feet long that comprises
thirty houses of grand proportions.
Such harmony, restraint and
elegance, plus the gently sloping sweep of grass that stretches
before it, always has the same effect; whether you are seeing
the crescent for the very first time, or for the hundredth, it
is a sight that never fails to draw a gasp of amazement.
When the famous literary hostess,
Mrs Elizabeth Montagu, came to live at No.16 in 1780, she declared
that, “The beautiful situation of the crescent cannot be
understood by any comparison with anything in any town whatsoever.”
Over two centuries later it
is hard to see how any sensible observer could reasonably challenge
this bold claim.
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