City centre, Bath
The Netflix show Bridgerton may be a fantastical reimagining of Regency London, but much of it is filmed in Bath – due to its protected Georgian architecture and Unesco world heritage status. This two-bedroom penthouse sits on the third floor of a classic curved terrace on The Circus in the heart of the city. It is south-facing, and has a balcony and triple-aspect views. The Royal Crescent, which has featured in the series, is just around the corner, and over the River Avon is the Holburne Museum – used as Lady Danbury’s townhouse. £675,000.
The Guardian thinks this is lovely and aye, it’s not bad. The Circus is very grand houses indeed. This one, well, slightly, it’s on the corner with Gay St, so you’ve buses bridning up to the entrance to hte Circus often enough. But the real point is that “third floor” is actually the old servants quarters up beneath the eaves. High ceilings and big windows – the standard Georgian belief – it won’t be.
Amusing to see that the owners intend to dump those pestilent plebs who buy the ‘penthouse’ on the servant’s floor.
The photos show a basic apartment with some damned nice views. 40 years ago it would have been an ideal starter flat before moving on to something more substantial.
However, even in today’s market, there is an upper limit for such properties (unless they’re adjacent to Knightsbridge) and the fact that Savills are having to punt this one so hard suggests that the limit has been exceeded.
It’s not *that* long ago that there was a student hall in the Circus, and two of the houses were knocked together as a nursing home. Back in the Seventies no-one wanted huge drafty hard-to-heat houses with massive staircases, and you could pick up an entire townhouse in the Circus for something like £30k
My sister was offered an entire house in Norfolk Crescent for £18k. Around, erm, 1979, 1980 or so. OK, needed proper building work, not just a tart up, but still……
The parentals place, Bloomfield Ave (overlooking the tennis courts) was 6k back in 1966…..same reason too. Family sizes were falling, who needed a big house?
OK, so Guardian readers won’t like the low ceilings and small windows, but being on the corner of Gay Street would attract buyers.
‘“third floor” is actually the old servants quarters up beneath the eaves. High ceilings and big windows – the standard Georgian belief – it won’t be.’
Then if you enjoy Georgian architecture try the New Town in Edinburgh. Our third floor flat did indeed have high ceilings and big windows – with the original shutters still in place.
You would have to stomach the neo-Scotnaz government though.
That is one of the differences, isn’t it? Same architects even – I know the Adams’ did some in both – but Bath was built as houses. New Town as flats?
Yup, flats. Presumably just fine because people were moving out of the Old Town which was flats too, with rather more floors to each tenement.
Which gives us a rather different layout 2.5 centuries later. The bourgeois flats are still bourgeois flats, while the ipper bourgeois house has been slived and diced into floors where some get the Georgians bits, some the servants.
My own flat is just around the corner from that one advertised (80 yards maybe) and is first floor of a very less grand Georgian. But, big windows, high ceilings, which the top floor of the same place definitely does not have.
Paris is similar, with servants living in the mansard roof. They get the best views. Contrast with London where the servants are often in damp basements.