Description of the attraction
Royal Crescent is a residential complex in Bath, UK, consisting of 30 houses, built in the shape of a crescent. The complex was designed by architect John Wood Jr. and built between 1767 and 1774. At this time, Bath is experiencing its heyday: in an aristocratic environment, it becomes fashionable to go to rest on the water, and in the summer, Bath turned into the center of social life in Great Britain. Naturally, many new buildings are being built in the city, and it is to this time that the masterpieces of Georgian architecture, which Bath is famous for, belong.
At first, the complex was simply called the Crescent, the epithet "Royal" was added at the end of the 18th century, when Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, lived in houses 1 and 16.
John Wood only designed the façade of this complex, decorated with Ionic columns. The future owners of the houses bought themselves a plot of the façade and hired their own architect to construct the building. The result is a unique structure - with a single facade, the back side of the houses is a chaotic mixture of buildings of different layouts and roofs of different heights. "Royal facade and backyard cooks" - this is the name of this style in Bath.
John Wood Jr., like his father John Wood Sr., was interested in occult and Masonic symbols. Some find these symbols in their buildings. The Royal Crescent and the nearby Circle - three curved buildings in an arc, and a circular square in the middle, by John Wood Sr. - symbolize the moon and the sun, and the Circle with adjacent Gay Street and Queens Square in the plan form a key - also one of Masonic symbols.
Famous people lived in these houses at different times: Marie-Louise de Lamballe, maid of honor of Queen Marie Antoinette, Prince Frederick Duke of York and Albany, poet and playwright Richard Sheridan. Here was born the "Society of Blue Stockings" - this was the name of the salon of Lady Elizabeth Montagu.
Now house number 1 houses a museum, and houses number 15 and 16 are merged, and there is a hotel.
