Bath, city, unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, historic county of Somerset, southwestern England. Bath lies astride the River Avon (Lower, or Bristol, Avon) in a natural arena of steep hills. It was built of local limestone and is one of the most elegant and architecturally distinguished of British cities. Its 16th-century abbey church of St. Peter and St. Paul is late Perpendicular Gothic and is noted for its windows, but it is the wealth of classical Georgian buildings mounting the steep valley sides that gives Bath its distinction. The city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987.
The hot (115 °F [46 °C]) mineral springs on the site attracted the Romans, who founded Bath as Aquae Sulis, dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva, an amalgamation of Celtic (Sul) and Roman (Minerva) deities. The Saxons built an abbey on the site where in 973 ce Edgar was crowned the first king of all England. The Normans subsequently rebuilt the church between 1088 and 1122, transferring there the diocese they had founded at Wells. The bishop’s throne returned to Wells in 1206, and there was a long rivalry between the canons of Wells and the monks of Bath, of which the bishop was titular abbot. The diocese is still styled Bath and Wells.
Medieval Bath, incorporated by charter in 1189, shared in the west-of-England wool trade and later in the cloth trade, but the baths, although still used by royalty, were poorly maintained. When portions of the Roman baths were rediscovered in 1755, Bath had already revived as a spa. In its heyday as a fashionable resort—presided over by the social figure Richard (“Beau”) Nash, one of the greatest English dandies—the Elizabethan town was rebuilt and extended in Palladian style by the architects John Wood the Elder and Younger and their patron, Ralph Allen, who provided the stone from his local quarries and built the mansion of Prior Park (1735–48) overlooking the city. In 1769–74 Robert Adam built Pulteney Bridge to connect Bath with the new suburb of Bathwick across the River Avon.
Close to the abbey, in the entrenched valley of the River Avon, is the 18th-century Pump Room, giving access to the hot springs and Roman baths. Among some 140 historic terraces and individual buildings that grace the city are Queen Square, built by John Wood the Elder between 1728 and 1735; the Circus, begun by Wood in 1754 and completed by his son; the Royal Crescent, 1767–75, likewise designed by the father and completed by the son; the Guildhall, 1775; Lansdown Crescent, built by John Palmer, 1796–97; and the 1795 pavilion in Sydney Gardens, Bathwick, which now houses the art collection of the Holburne Museum. In 1942 the Assembly Rooms of 1771 were destroyed in an air raid from which the whole city suffered severely, but extensive reconstruction, as well as renovation, has since been carried out. The Assembly Rooms, reopened in 1963, now contain the Fashion Museum, a world-class collection of fashionable dress from the 17th to the 21st century. Claverton Manor, 2 miles (3 km) outside the city, is an early 19th-century mansion housing the American Museum in Britain, a large museum of Americana.
As the leading centre of English high society outside London in the 18th and early 19th centuries, the city is rich in literary associations. The life of the time is graphically depicted in the novels of Tobias Smollett and in the plays of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Jane Austen’s novels Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (both 1817) portray with delicate satire and keen perception the fashionable life of Bath about 1800. Bath Olivers (biscuits that take their name from William Oliver, an eminent physician who founded what is now the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases), Bath buns, Bath bricks, and Bath (invalid) chairs all derive their names from the city.
As public support waned, the city’s spa facilities had all closed by the 1970s. However, amid renewed interest in spa culture, a new facility, Thermae Bath Spa, was opened (2006) close to the hot springs in a signature building, the construction of which also included restoration of five historic buildings in the city’s traditional spa quarter.
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Tourism is important to the local economy. Although not primarily a manufacturing centre, Bath also has considerable publishing and light engineering industries. Pop. (2001) 90,144; (2011) 94,782.