The Roman Baths Bath

[StephenM]

Every summer the Roman Baths stay open later, with torches around the baths, and usually a few re-enactors scattered around. These photos are from the 2018 opening. The first was taken from the top of the steps which can just about be seen in the second photograph in the extreme left hand corner.

Turning away from the main bath, when at the top of the steps, you can look across another smaller bath:

This is one view where I can give a before and after photograph, as I have one from 1966. I've cropped the one above to reproduce the area in the older photograph. You can always play spot the difference...

The wooden door in the older photo is now a window to look in; the water level is lower, and the object looking like a large font has disappeared. When the baths were fashionable in the 18th century, the water level was much higher; the staining on the walls in the colour photo show the old water level.

 

[Levina de Ruijter]

Fascinating, Stephen.

And these baths aren't so different from contemporary ones, like they still have in the middle east and in the Maghreb. I guess, a bath is pretty much a bath.

 

[StephenM]

The modern Turkish baths pretty much continue the Roman tradition. Anyone interested in exploring the Roman Baths at Bath from their armchair will find a fly through video/animation, computer generated, on the website. At least, the last time I looked.

We used to have a season ticket (3 years duration) so we often visited. Then they restricted the ticket to locals, and as we live 126 miles away by road, we were innumerate (didn't count ).

I have more photos I'll post later.

 

[StephenM]

Visitors to the baths, particularly ones who have visited over many years, will notice changes. New parts are open now, that were behind boards for years, the actual entry point is different, and, in some places, you can see through netting tantalising glimpses of other areas still not accessible to visitors. There are tours - not I think often, but they do exist - to see some of these off limits areas. We went on an underground one, seeing some of the areas that are actually below the streets of Bath. At one point, we were told where we were on the ground, and told that were were grids or small openings at the street level. Being there and looking up brought to mind a description of Alexandria (I think it was) in Egypt when the "hermit craze" was in full swing. The author said that every few yards as you walked the streets, you'd encounter a grating with a hermit underneath...

Be that as it may, here's one photograph from a part of the baths a normal visitor doesn't get to.

 

[StephenM]

Going back to the baths proper, a few more views. As you enter the baths, and before you reach the main bath, you walk through various exhibits. Up on the wall at one point is a reconstruction of the temple pediment (the temple steps are still visible - just). The fragments are unpainted, and normally are seen as such. The night opening has additional coloured lighting, giving a more realistic impression of how it really looked.

One view from beside the great bath I haven't shown is one down the side of the bath, without the bath being visible.

The opening you can see at the far end leads to the east baths, which were not open to the public when I first visited the baths (admittedly, back in the 1950s).

The paved area outside the baths is still there, and you can walk over it via a walkway:

And finally, to put the position of the baths into context, this shows Bath Abbey illuminated and towering over the baths.