Bath Tour Details
Tour: City Sightseeing Bath: Start Point: Bath Abbey
Duration: City Tour: 45 - 50 minutes, Skyline Tour: 45 minutes
Frequency: City Tour: 6 - 15 Summer, 20 - 30 minutes Winter
Skyline Tour: 20 minutes Summer, 60 minutes Winter
Season: All Year round Ticket Validity: 24 Hours
Commentary: City Tour: English Live Guide plus pre-recorded, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Cantonese, Mandarin and Polish.
Skyline Tour: English Live Guide
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About The City of Bath
Bath is a city in Somerset in the south west of England. It is situated 99 miles west of London and 13 miles south-east of Bristol. The population of the city is about 80,000. It was granted city status by Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590, and was made a county borough in 1889 which gave it administrative independence from its county, Somerset. The city became part of Avon when that county was created in 1974. Since 1996, when Avon was abolished, Bath has been the principal centre of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, a part of the wider Somerset county.
The city was founded, among surrounding hills, in the valley of the River Avon around naturally-occurring hot springs where the Romans built baths and a temple, giving it the name Aquae Sulis. Edgar was crowned king of England at Bath Abbey in 973. Much later, it became popular as a spa resort during the Georgian era, which led to a major expansion that left a heritage of exemplary Georgian architecture crafted from Bath Stone.
The city became a World Heritage Site in 1987, and has a variety of theatres, museums, and other cultural and sporting venues, which have helped to make it a major centre for tourism, with over one million staying visitors and 3.8 million day visitors to the city each year. The city has two universities and several schools and colleges. There is a large service sector and growing information and communication technologies and creative industries, providing employment for the population of Bath and the surrounding area.
Bath Culture
Bath became the leading centre of fashionable life in England during the 18th century. It was during this time that Bath's Theatre Royal was built, as well as architectural developments such as Lansdown Crescent, the Royal Crescent, The Circus and Pulteney Bridge.
Today, Bath has five theatres – Bath Theatre Royal, Ustinov Studio, the egg, the Rondo Theatre, and the Mission Theatre – and attracts internationally renowned companies and directors, including an annual season by Sir Peter Hall. The city also has a long-standing musical tradition; Bath Abbey is home to the Klais Organ and is the largest concert venue in the city, with about 20 concerts and 26 organ recitals each year. Another important concert venue is the Forum, a 1,700-seat art deco building which originated as a cinema. The city holds the Bath International Music Festival and Mozartfest every year. Other festivals include the annual Bath Film Festival, Bath Literature Festival, the Bath Fringe Festival and the Bath Beer Festival, and the Bach Festivals which occur at two and a half year intervals.
The city is home to the Victoria Art Gallery, the Museum of East Asian Art, and Holburne Museum of Art, numerous commercial art galleries and antique shops, as well as numerous museums, among them Bath Postal Museum, the Fashion Museum (which was previously known as the Museum of Costume), the Jane Austen Centre, the Herschel Museum of Astronomy and the Roman Baths. The Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, now in Queen Square, and founded in 1824 on the base of a 1777 Society for the encouragement of Agriculture, Planting, Manufactures, Commerce and the Fine Arts, has an important collection and holds a rich and popular programme of talks and discussions.
Bath in the arts
During the 18th century Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Thomas Lawrence lived and worked in Bath. William Friese-Greene began experimenting with celluloid and motion pictures in his studio in Bath in the 1870s, developing some of the earliest movie camera technology there. He is credited as the inventor of cinematography.
Jane Austen lived in the city from 1801 with her father, mother and sister Cassandra, and the family resided in the city at four successive addresses until 1806. However, Jane Austen never liked the city, and wrote to her sister Cassandra, "It will be two years tomorrow since we left Bath for Clifton, with what happy feelings of escape." Despite these feelings, Bath has honoured her name with the Jane Austen Centre and a city walk. Austen's later Northanger Abbey and Persuasion are largely set in the city and feature descriptions of taking the waters, social life, and music recitals. Taking the waters is also described in Charles Dickens' novel Pickwick Papers in which Pickwick's servant, Sam Weller, comments that the water has "a very strong flavour o' warm flat irons", while the Royal Crescent is the venue for a chase between two of the characters, Dowler and Winkle. Moyra Caldecott's novel The Waters of Sul is set in Roman Bath in 72 AD. Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The Rivals takes place in the city, as does Roald Dahl's chilling short-story, The Landlady.
Many films and television programmes have been filmed in Bath including: the 2004 film of Thackeray's Vanity Fair, The Duchess (2008), The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) and The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953).
In August 2003 the Three Tenors sang at a special concert to mark the opening of the Thermae Bath Spa.
Parks in Bath
The city has several public parks, the main one being Royal Victoria Park, which is a short walk from the centre of the city. It was opened in 1830 by an 11-year-old Princess Victoria, and was the first park to carry her name. The park is overlooked by the Royal Crescent and consists of 57 acres with a variety of attractions. These include a skateboard ramp, tennis courts, bowling, a putting green and a 12- and 18-hole golf course, a pond, open air concerts, and a popular children's play area. Much of its area is lawn; a notable feature is the way in which a ha-ha segregates it from the Royal Crescent, while giving the impression to a viewer from the Crescent of a greensward uninterrupted across the Park down to Royal Avenue. It has received a "Green Flag award", the national standard for parks and green spaces in England and Wales, and is registered by English Heritage as a Park of National Historic Importance. The and a 9 acres botanical garden were formed in 1887 and contain one of the finest collections of plants on limestone in the West country. The replica of a Roman Temple was used at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924. In 1987 the gardens were extended to include the Great Dell, a disused quarry that was formally part of the park, which contains a large collection of conifers.
About City Sightseeing City Tours
City Sightseeing do more than just Bath City tours. They are a global sightseeing bus brand, started by Ensignbus, which operates tour bus rides around keyword plus various cities in the UK and worldwide.
Typically the tours consist of an open top double-decker bus. As the bus travels around the town or city, either pre-recorded or live commentary is provided. City Sightseeing buses are recognisable due to their distinctively decorated red livery. Tickets and offers are transferable between the worldwide tours.
Bath City Tours at Computicket from City Sightseeing |
