MAY 2018 | NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER INDIA 125
U.K.MATT CARDY/STRINGER/GETTY IMAGES(PARK),MATT CARDY/STRINGER/GETTY IMAGES(PEOPLE)W
here do I begin with Bath? It is the story of secret
desires and lovers’ trysts, of marauding Romans
and their sanitary habits and of cosmic discov-
eries and distant dreams. It was the showiest
city in all England. Still is. This story is over 2,000 years old yet
incredibly modern and it begins 185 kilometres west of London.
I first heard of Bath when I was 13. I had borrowed a book
from the school library and was so incredibly swept up in
its pages that (at great risk) I snuck it in the folds of my school
diary and took Northanger Abbey to the morning assembly.
There, as my friends prayed for their ‘daily bread’, butter and
absolution, I ‘arrived in Bath’ and like Austen’s Catherine ‘was
all eager delight...’
University, three jobs, and a decade and three later when I
actually arrived in Bath on the train from North West England,
it was a grey morning, rain-soaked and dull. And yet again, I
‘was all eager delight... eyes here, there and everywhere.’ The
street names appeared familiar. I didn’t need a map. Over the
next two days, I went everywhere Catherine took me, Cheap
Street, up Milsom Street, left on to Gay Street, the Circus and
finally the Assembly Rooms. It seemed nothing had changed in
the 200 years from when a young Jane Austen first arrived here
for a ball. My eyes climbed the pale duck-egg walls to meet a row
of windows set high to provide both ventilation and privacy to
dancers on crowded ball nights since 1771.
Even the chandeliers have a story to tell. “One of them once
lost an arm which fell, narrowly missing painter Thomas
Gainsborough who lived nearby,” whispers the guide. Which one,
I ask. “Oh! They took it down. Surely they couldn’t keep it after
that. Gainsborough might have thrown a fit.” She laughs. The
Assembly Rooms' chandeliers are some of the finest examples to
have not just survived two wars, but also been adapted through
time, from candles to gas light and electricity. And that is the
story of much of Bath. You can time travel through 2,000 years
of history in two hours. But Bath is no museum city. Here, the
Roman, Georgian, Victorian and modern live in one happy house
share. And nowhere is this more apparent than at the Abbey
Church Yard. Coffee shops and tearooms in this neighbourhood
share their front doors with the Roman Baths and the Georgian
Pump Room restaurant. On warm summer days, buskers and
busloads of tourists stand, stare and stop for a bite and a selfie.
Even the residents come out at lunchtime for a sandwich, drinkIn Search of Lost Time
Walking in Bath is time-travelling through 2,000
years of history. But the English city is no dreary
museum—its yellow stone buildings live and breathe
centuries-old stories BY SWAGATA GHOSH
The Regency
Costumed
Promenade is the
highlight of the
annual Jane Austen
Festival in Bath.
Every September,
a procession of
about 500 dancers,
red coats and
town criers bring
Regency Bath
alive through
their 18th-century
costumes (inset).
The procession
starts at the Royal
Crescent Lawn
and weaves its
way down the city
to finish at the
Parade Gardens
near the Bath
Abbey (in picture).