[5172] Bath Assembly Rooms : Ballroom

Assembly Rooms, Bath, 1769-71.

By John Wood the Younger (1728-1782).

Grade l listed.

Restored 1938 by Aston Mowbray Green (1865-1945).

Restored again 1963 Sir Albert Richardson (1880-1964) after extensive bomb damage in 1942.

Repairs after collapse of the ballroom ceiling by David Brain Partnership 1989-91.

 

The Ballroom, the largest 18th century room in Bath.

Severely damaged by enemy action in the Second World War. Restored 1956-63.

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Opened by subscription on 30 September 1771 to serve the fast-expanding upper town, this 'large and noble block' (Pevsner) became the heart of polite Bath society. One of the most magnificent of all Georgian civic buildings, it entered use as a lecture and concert hall (in which Liszt performed) in the 19th century before becoming a cinema and market in the 20th.

 

The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), through the munificence of Ernest Cook, bought the building in 1931. It was lavishly restored under the eye of Mowbray Green, the Bath architect, and re-opened in October 1938. Severe bomb damage in April 1942 affected the interior, and the ballroom in particular, leaving the building a gutted shell. This was Bath's most severe architectural casualty of the war.

 

A second full restoration was undertaken in the early 1960s under the direction of Sir Albert Richardson. The Assembly Rooms were re-opened in May 1963.

 

 

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