The world’s finest crescent is one of the grandest examples of European architecture, the most breathtakingly beautiful feature in one of the world’s most elegant and enchanting cities.
Begun in 1767 by John Wood the Younger, the crescent took eight years to complete and included some of the grandest houses in Bath. John Wood was utterly determined that his masterpiece should present a prospect of total uniformity and understated gracefulness. His sweeping vision and scrupulous attention to every detail has created a great elliptical curve almost fifty feel high and five hundred feet long that comprises thirty identical houses of grand proportions.
Such harmony, restraint, and elegance, plus the gently sloping sweep of grass that stretches before it, invariably has the same effect on the observer - whether you are seeing The Royal Crescent for the very first time, or for the hundredth, it is a sight that never fails to draw a gasp of sheer amazement. When the famous literary hostess, Mrs Elizabeth Montagu, came to live at No. 16 in 1780 she was moved to declare that “The beautiful situation of the crescent cannot be understood by any comparison with anything in any town whatsoever” Over two centuries later it is hard to see how any sensible observer could reasonably challenge this seemingly extravagant claim.
Can you imagine a more splendid setting for an exceptionally elegant hotel that harks back to a time of extravagant luxury and exemplary refinement?