City in Somerset, England

Bath

Bath is the only city in Britain where hot springs bubble up naturally, and the Romans built a bathing and temple complex around them.

Key information

County: Somerset
Nation: England
Population: about 89,000 (2011 Census)
Known for: Roman Baths, Georgian crescents, Bath Abbey, Thermae Bath Spa, Bath buns and rugby
What locals are called: Bathonians
Famous people: Jane Austen (lived there), William Herschel, Thomas Gainsborough (worked there), Beau Nash
Football clubs: Bath City

About Bath

The city built on hot water

Rain that fell on the Mendip Hills thousands of years ago sinks deep underground, heats up, and rises in Bath at about 46°C. Around a million litres a day pour out of the ground in the middle of the city, and it is the only place in Britain where hot springs emerge naturally. Legend says the spring was discovered by Bladud, a prince who was cast out with leprosy, became a swineherd, and noticed his pigs were cured after wallowing in the warm mud. It is a story, but a persistent one, and Bladud still gets his statue at the baths. The Romans were less romantic about it. Around AD 70 they began building a bathing and temple complex dedicated to Sulis Minerva, merging a local Celtic goddess with their own deity of wisdom. They called the town Aquae Sulis, the waters of Sulis. The Great Bath still contains spring water today.

Curses, coins and a lead-lined pool

The Roman Baths are among the best-preserved Roman sites in northern Europe. The Great Bath is lined with lead and fed by the spring, and the green water is a reminder that nobody swims in it now. The spring was also a place to ask the goddess for justice. Archaeologists have recovered more than 130 curse tablets from the sacred spring, thin sheets of lead scratched with complaints about stolen cloaks and missing property, begging Sulis Minerva to punish the thief. Many names are recorded, which makes them an unusually personal glimpse of Roman Britain. The baths were rediscovered in pieces over the 18th and 19th centuries, with the major excavations coming in the Victorian era. The great Roman engineering was buried beneath the city for centuries.

How a gambler made Bath fashionable

In the 18th century Bath became the smartest address in England. The man in charge of the social scene was Richard "Beau" Nash, a gambler and dandy who became Master of Ceremonies in 1704 and drew up rules of etiquette for the Pump Room and the assembly rooms. Visitors came to drink the waters, dance, gossip and be seen. The building boom that followed gave the city its honey-coloured look. John Wood the Elder and his son John Wood the Younger designed the Circus and the Royal Crescent, while Ralph Allen, who made his fortune from the postal system, promoted the local limestone from his quarries at Combe Down. Pulteney Bridge, designed by Robert Adam, is one of the few bridges in the world lined with shops along both sides. The Royal Crescent, finished in the 1770s, is a sweep of 30 houses with 114 columns. It looks like a single grand palace from the front, but behind the façade each house was built to a different plan.

Austen, astronomers and artists

Jane Austen lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806 and set parts of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in the city. She had mixed feelings about it, but the city has embraced her ever since, and there is a Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street and a festival each September. Bath's science credentials are just as good. In 1781, while living in New King Street, the musician and astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus using a telescope he had built himself. The house is now a museum. Thomas Gainsborough worked in Bath in the 1760s and early 1770s, painting the portraits of the fashionable visitors who flocked to the city. Meanwhile, Bath Abbey, with its extraordinary fan vaulting and the angels climbing ladders on its west front, has been described as the Lantern of the West because of its large windows.

Buns, bakes and a rugby obsession

Bath is known for the Sally Lunn bun, a large, light, brioche-like bun sold from one of the oldest houses in the city and served split with sweet or savoury toppings. The Bath bun is smaller, sweet and topped with sugar nibs, and the Bath Oliver is a dry biscuit supposedly invented by Dr William Oliver in the 18th century for his patients. On the sporting side, Bath is a rugby city. Bath Rugby play at the Recreation Ground, known as the Rec, right beside the river and in the shadow of the Abbey, which makes it one of the most distinctive grounds in the sport. The club won the European Cup in 1998 and dominated English rugby in the late 1980s and 1990s. Football's Bath City are the main club for the round-ball game. Thermae Bath Spa opened in 2006, reviving Bath's long tradition of bathing in its natural thermal waters. Public bathing continued long after Roman times, including at the historic baths until 1978. Its rooftop pool has views over the city.

A whole city on the World Heritage list

In 1987 the City of Bath became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2021 it was inscribed again as part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe, making it one of very few places on the list twice. The city is compact and hilly, set in a bowl of green slopes beside the River Avon, with the Kennet and Avon Canal cutting through. Pedestrians can walk the main sights in a day, and the surrounding hills give views over the terraces of pale stone. Locals are known as Bathonians, and the city's Latin-sounding adjective shows up in the names of everything from clubs to cafés.

Roman Britain

Published 02 October 2026

Rome ran Britain for almost 400 years, yet the island's most famous Roman road builders left behind a province that was never fully conquered and a capital that was never Rome's idea.

History

Jane Austen