IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Great Bedford Street, BATH, BA1 2UA

Many of the houses in the Square hang up wreaths on their doors at Christmas. Two adjacent doors in particular seem to try to outdo one another every year for size and elaboration. Here is one of them with 2012's wreath.

The north side of this rectangular square which has roads entering diagonally at each corner. Pevsner observes that it is "the most complete Georgian square in Bath", which is surprising until one remembers that Bath's most notable set pieces are crescents or terraces (or the Circus). Bowed ends, a pilastered and pedimented centrepiece, and accompanying arched windows. Identical to the south side. By John Palmer, 1790-93. Grade I listed.

The hooks on the iron racks would have once been used by a nearby butchers' shop to hang game.

Covering nos. 11-20. Late Georgian and on a more modest scale than most in Bath. Two bays rather than the more usual three, no decoration to speak of, and rather gracelessly proportioned. Easy on the eye nonetheless. Built 1820-26 by G.P. Manners, "his only speculative scheme". Grade II listed.

We had just taken off from Victoria Park, flying roughly westwards.

Behind a couple of other trees on the left is a cherry tree, in the grounds of St. Andrew's School, which is currently threatened with being felled. There is a 'Save the Cherry Tree' poster on display in the window of the house on the right (as in many others in Northampton St.) [Update: The tree was spared as a result of this campaign] Note the broken-off remains of a doorway to a house which was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War.

The east side of this rectangular square which has roads entering diagonally at each corner. Pevsner observes that it is "the most complete Georgian square in Bath", which is surprising until one remembers that Bath's most notable set pieces are crescents or terraces (or the Circus). Pedimented centre. The east, and west, sides are plainer. By John Palmer, 1790-93. Grade I listed.

Bath's answer to London's squares. "Exuding quiet taste and charm... In 1790 Sir Peter Rivers Gay leased the land (by then partly gardens to the Royal Crescent) to four craftsmen, who commissioned the architect John Palmer. To maintain quality, the lease specified that building costs should be at least ten thousand pounds. Work was complete by 1793. ... The railings [seen here] were restored in the 1990s" (Michael Forsyth, Pevsner Architectural Guide to Bath)

Small church with parking for cycles!

A steep street which widens dramatically above the kink a third of the way up. The housing in this street mostly dates from the early 1800s. Much damage was done to the lower end of the street in the Second World War. Some of this was replaced by a council block (Phoenix House - not visible in this photograph); in the 1990s the two houses below the gap on the right of the street were built, more sympathetically matching the others. More recently, the lowest house on the right became a private house; previously it had been a pub, the Dark Horse https://www.closedpubs.co.uk/somerset/bath_darkhorse.html (formerly the White Horse). Telephone wires fan out across the top end of the street, attaching themselves a storey below the rooflines of the houses.