Clive Best

Roman Baths

Bath View

Headed towards Bath from Weston across country avoiding the M5. This is lovely countryside and halfway there we realised we were just 2 miles away from Tim and Joy who we knew from 10 years ago in Italy and who now live in a tiny village near Bath. We dropped in half expecting a) not to remember the road and b) even if we did expecting they would be out. They were in so it was great to meet them again and then head off  for another Pub lunch in a nice Free House with me promising to have just one pint.

So from there on to Bath and again I risked it by driving into the centre and finding a place in Queen Square. Bath is really a splendid place, totally unspoilt and still all Georgian houses from mid 1700’s. It matches the best of Italian cities and deserves its reputation. However as we arrived and parked the 2 pints had now reached my bladder so my first priority was to find the public WC !

Bath Street

Regency Circus

Bath has two universities and it would be a great place to live because unlike, for example, Chichester there are many young people around. Probably there are too many tourists in summer but it all adds to make the atmosphere lively. One of the best things I noticed walking around is that Bath alone seems to have curtailed the mega-shop frontages that spoil most other places in Britain. Thus Starbucks, WH Smith’s, Top Shop and even Boots all  have toned down signs, whereas even in Salisbury they have their standard gaudy coloured signs which shout out at you from below medieval buildings. These mega-chain retailers are the curse of English cities as they monopolise and standardise city centres with their monotonous trademarks. These companies have made every city centre look the same. Only Bath seems to have controlled this steady encroachment on city centres to fight back against commercial bland uniformity.