Hotels near The Royal Crescent and No. 1 Royal Crescent

The Royal Crescent is a sweep of 30 terraced houses built between 1767 and 1774 to a design by John Wood the Younger, fronted by 114 Ionic columns and facing a broad lawn that drops away towards Royal Victoria Park. It is the single most recognisable piece of Georgian architecture in Britain. The trick behind the facade is worth knowing: the uniform front was sold as a shell, and each buyer commissioned their own architect for the interior and the rear, so the back of the Crescent is a jumble of different rooflines and window sizes.

No. 1 Royal Crescent, at the eastern end, is the house you can go inside. Restored by the Bath Preservation Trust to how it looked between 1776 and 1796, it runs across two buildings and takes in the withdrawing room, the gentleman's bedroom, the kitchen and the servants' quarters. Admission is around GBP 15 for adults, and the visit takes about an hour. Everything is presented without rope barriers, which makes it far more convincing than most house museums.

Pro Tip: For the classic photograph of the full curve, stand on the ha-ha at the bottom of the lawn rather than on the pavement. Early morning before 9am gives you the whole crescent lit and empty, and the grass is public land so nobody will move you on.