COMMENT | GEORGIAN INTERIORS | WORDS BY JOHN LAW
We are very fortunate to have worked on a wide range of Georgian interiors, both here in Bath and further afield. For details on our most recent projects on properties of that very era, head to our portfolio, here. And if you are keen to get further inspiration on all things Georgian, look no further. Here are our top three recommendations of Georgian landmarks that you can visit, right here in the city of Bath.
This Grade I listed building was built to the designs of architect John Wood the Younger (1728-1782) between 1767 – 72. Today, the property is open to the public and decorated and furnished as it might have been during the period 1776-1796. The rooms feature historic furniture, pictures and objects that form the museum collection.
The major redevelopment Whole Story Project in 2010-13 reconnected the main house to its original service wing at No.1a. It also provided the opportunity to carry out some major restoration and conservation work including opening up new rooms as part of the historic house and refreshing the existing historic interiors.
The city’s first public art gallery, this Grade I listed building[ is home to fine and decorative arts built around the collection of Sir William Holburne. Since 1916 the museum has been housed in the former Sydney Hotel at the end of Great Pulteney Street. The original design for the hotel, prepared by Thomas Baldwin in 1794, was a two-storey building which would serve the pleasure gardens, known as Sydney Gardens.
After Baldwin was bankrupted his design for the hotel was not implemented. Instead a three-storey building was designed by Charles Harcourt Masters. The foundation stone was laid in 1796 and the building was ready by 1799. The building frequently hosted balls and festivities, and Queen Charlotte herself stayed opposite the Sydney Hotel on Sydney Place when she came to Bath ‘to take the waters’ in 1817, which were believed to help a variety of health conditions.
Visitors entered Sydney Gardens through the hotel. They provided a favourite walk for Jane Austen who set part of her novel Northanger Abbey across from the Holburne in Great Pulteney Street. The gardens remain the only remaining eighteenth-century pleasure gardens in the country.
Today, artists in the museum’s collection include Gainsborough, Guardi and Stubbs, and also provides a programme of temporary exhibitions, music performances, creative workshops, family events, talks and lectures. Its façade is also widely recognised as Lady Danbury’s House in Bridgerton. The Holburne also stood in for the Devonshire villa in the 2008 film The Duchess starring Keira Knightley, and for Steyne’s mansion in Vanity Fair, the 2004 adaption of William Thackeray’s novel, starring Reese Witherspoon.
The Royal Crescent Hotel and Spa, Bath
Made up of two Grade I listed townhouses set in the centre of the most iconic crescent in the world, recent modernisation work has recently seen the launch of a sophisticated new indoor-outdoor dining concept in Montagu’s Mews, a chic new bar and the renovation of the hotel’s suites and bedrooms.
Seeking to connect the Lobby with the reception spaces and newly refreshed bar and restaurant, the design team looked to the hotel’s beautiful and unexpected gardens for inspiration. This sense of bringing the outside in was also a homage to the much-loved magnolia previously occupying the façade, removed due the damage its roots were causing to the Grade-I building. The team fell in love with the Italian Promenade fresco design by London based duo IKSEL, reminiscent of the rural scenes so enjoyed by Georgian homeowners. The sylvan design is also a reference to the influence that Italian architecture, with its emphasis on symmetry and proportions, had on the architects of the time.
Each bedroom is wonderfully unique, from grand suites with triple sash windows overlooking the Royal Crescent at the front of the hotel to cosy attic rooms with verdant garden views. Rooms looking out to the gardens enjoy palettes in vibrant greens and blues inspired by the views beyond.
