Royal Crescent description and photos - Great Britain: Bath (Topic)

Royal Crescent description and photos - Great Britain: Bath. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Royal Crescent.

Photo and description

The Royal Crescent is a residential complex in Bath, Great Britain, consisting of 30 houses, built in the shape of a crescent. The complex was designed by the architect John Wood Jr. and built in 1767-1774. At this time, Bath was experiencing its heyday: in an aristocratic environment, it became fashionable to go to rest on the water, and in the summer, Bath turned into the center of British social life. Naturally, many new buildings are being built in the city, and it was to this time that the masterpieces of Georgian architecture, which Bath is famous for, belong.

At first, the complex was simply called the Crescent, the epithet "Royal"; was added at the end of the 18th century, when Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, lived in houses 1 and 16.

John Wood designed only the facade of this complex, decorated with Ionic columns. The future owners of the houses bought themselves a plot of the facade and hired their own architect to build the building. The result is a unique structure - with a single facade, the back side of the houses is a chaotic mixture of buildings of different layouts and roofs of different heights. "Royal facade and backyard cooks" - this is the name of this style in Bath.

John Wood Jr., like his father John Wood Sr., was interested in occult and Masonic symbols. Some find these symbols in their buildings as well. The Royal Crescent and the nearby Circle - three curved buildings in an arc, and a circular square in the middle, by John Wood Sr. - symbolize the moon and the sun, and the Circle with adjacent Gay Street and Queens Square in the plan form a key - also one of Masonic symbols.

Famous people lived in these houses at different times: Marie-Louise de Lamballe, maid of honor of Queen Marie Antoinette, Prince Frederick Duke of York and Albany, poet and playwright Richard Sheridan. Here was born the "Society of Blue Stockings" - this was the name of the salon of Lady Elizabeth Montagu.

Now house number 1 is a museum, and houses number 15 and 16 are combined, and there is a hotel.

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Topic: Royal Crescent description and photos - Great Britain: Bath.