Click to see some of the wonderful photographs from this book by kind permissions of N Meener (all rights reserved)

Niell Menneer (photographer)

Cathryn Spence

The Georgian Buildings of Bath

reprinted 1969 Kingsmead Reprints

republished 1996 Bath Preservation Trust

Genius of Bath

Bath in the Life and Times of Jane Austen [Illustrated] [Paperback]

A City of Palaces:

Bath Through the Eyes of Fanny Burney [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Pleasures and People of Bath. (A Folio Miniature)

Georgian Summer: Bath in the Eighteenth Century

Click, to read about this fascinating book by one of the Societies founders and past Chairman. It tells of the Bath in the swinging seventies, Princess Margaret and of the civic destruction of much of the City's Georgian architecture for "redevelopment and progress".

Foreword by Jan Morris

March 06

The City of Bath

The Eighteenth Century Architecture of Bath

Click to see pictures from this book 

Images of Bath

Click to see some images from this book - all rights reserved by publisher 

A Plan for Bath: Report for the Bath and District Joint Planning Committee

Click here to read some of the "plans" 

Click here to read the article by Crescent resident George Saintsbury from the book 

Traveller's History of Bath

(New Edition - with two extra chapters including one on the IRA bomb exploded in Bath in 1974)

Richard Beau Nash was the right man, in the right place, at the right time and the city of Bath with its grandiose Georgian architecture owes much to him. Little is known about this son of a Welsh glassmaker's early life. He went to Oxford, albeit for one year, then to the Inns of Court in London and he once stood at the west door of York Minster wearing only a blanket to win a wager of 50 guineas. In 1705, at the age of 30, he arrived in Bath. The city was a spa town competing with the likes Tunbridge but some 40 years later, he had help create and forge the city we all know. His self confidence enabled him to create himself as the "King of Bath", "Master of Ceremonies", "Regulator of the Diversions and Moderator of Disputes of Play"and "Overseer of the Marriage Market". He created the social rules, the dress code, controlled the music, dancing, entertainment and subscriptions that all visitors paid. He also had a strong influence in the boom in gambling and high stakes won and lost at cards. Elgin reveals how during this short period the city exploded in every dimension; social and political battles that transformed it, the 3,000 turnspit dogs who helped keep it fed and the characters who together with Nash created Georgian Bath; the Assembly Rooms, Pump Rooms, the Parades, Queen's Square and King's Circus, and gives us a fascinating insight into a man who rewrote his own history to fit the facts. 300 pages with many black and white illustrations and 50 pages of references.

2005

Click to read of some of the Crescent characters from this book - by kind permissions from Redcliffe Press (all rights reserved)

Cynthia Hammond

Oliver Goldsmith

Jessica Godwin's indomitable spirit has ensured that she has lived every moment of her 100 years to the full. Her faultless memory takes the reader back with her over ten decades. She remained in a Home for the Fatherless until she was eight years old, then was allowed back into her own home because her mother had remarried. She survived bombing in two world wars, and worked, among other jobs, as a lady's companion, a tractor driver in the Land Army, and the director of a 'home for gentle ladies'! When she was 96, she flew to Canada, 'popped over to Australia' to visit a friend she had not seen for 40 years, and finally moved to Bath, where she lives next door to the house Jane Austen once occupied. Her book is a delight to read - not to mention being a first-hand historical record of a century.

Penny Bonsell