Bath Assembly Rooms

Bath Assembly Rooms
General information
Architectural style	Georgian
Town or city	Bath
Country	England
Construction started	24 May 1769
Completed	1771
Design and construction
Architect(s)	John Wood the Younger

The Bath Assembly Rooms, designed by John Wood the Younger in 1769, are a set of elegant assembly rooms located in the heart of the World Heritage City of Bath in England which are now open to the public as a visitor attraction. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.

There are four main function rooms in the complex: the 100-foot-long (30 m) ballroom — the largest Georgian interior in Bath; the tea room; the card room; and the octagon.

History

The Assembly Rooms formed the hub of fashionable Georgian society in the city. Citizens would gather in the rooms in the evening for balls and other public functions, or simply to play cards. Mothers and chaperones bringing their daughters to Bath for the social season, hoping to marry them off to a suitable husband, would take their charge to such events where, very quickly, one might meet all the eligible men currently in the City.

Assembly Rooms and Fashion Museum

Scenes such as this feature in the novels of Jane Austen, who lived in Bath with her parents and sister from 1801 to 1805. Her two novels set in Bath, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published in 1818 and both mention the Assembly Rooms:

Mrs Allen was so long in dressing, that they did not enter the ball-room till late. The season was full, the room crowded, and the two ladies squeezed in as well as they could. As for Mr Allen, he repaired directly to the card-room, and left them to enjoy a mob by themselves. (Northanger Abbey)

Sir Walter, his two daughters, and Mrs Clay, were the earliest of all their party at the rooms in the evening; and as Lady Dalrymple must be waited for, they took their station by one of the fires in the Octagon Room. (Persuasion)

Charles Dickens also visited Bath on several occasions. He gave public readings in the Assembly Rooms and mentions them in the Pickwick Papers (published in 1837):

In the ball-room, the long card-room, the octagonal card-room, the staircases, and the passages, the hum of many voices, and the sound of many feet, were perfectly bewildering. Dresses rustled, feathers waved, lights shone, and jewels sparkled. There was the music — not of the quadrille band, for it had not yet commenced; but the music of soft tiny footsteps, with now and then a clear merry laugh — low and gentle, but very pleasant to hear in a female voice, whether in Bath or elsewhere.

During the Bath Blitz of 25/26 April 1942, one of the retailitory raids on England by the Baedeker Blitz following the RAF's raid on Lübeck, The Assembly Rooms were bombed and burnt out inside. After the cessation of hostilities in Europe, they were restored shortly afterwards.

The Assembly Rooms today

Today the rooms are owned by the National Trust and operated by Bath and North East Somerset Council. Part of the building provides a home to the Fashion Museum, Bath, but the main rooms are still available for hire for private functions. Their grandeur makes them a popular location for feature films and television series set in the Georgian period.

Gallery

• 
  Three Chandeliers adorning the Tea Room in the Bath Assembly Rooms
• The Octogon Room with a central Chandelier
  The Octogon Room with a central Chandelier
• 
  Bath Assembly Ballroom
• Entrance into the Octogon Room
  Entrance into the Octogon Room
• 
  Street entrance to the Bath Assembly Rooms

External links

• Bath Assembly Rooms information, National Trust
• Assembly Rooms page, Bath Council