The Royal Crescent shot
The great lawn is the best spot for fitting the whole stone arc in one frame, best before noon with the sun behind you.
Ad Meskens — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Simon Cobb — CC0 · Simon Cobb — CC0 · Raboe001 — CC BY-SA 3.0
The photograph everyone takes of Bath, that long stone arc of the Royal Crescent with an endless green apron in front of it, is not taken from a street. It is taken from here, from the grass of Royal Victoria Park. Opened in 1830 by an eleven-year-old princess seven years before she became Queen Victoria, it was the first park to carry her name, and it has stayed what it was that day: open to everyone, no ticket, and the main park is never locked, day or night. It is a council park of roughly 23 hectares, registered at Grade I on the national register of historic parks, sloping gently west from below the Crescent. The corner nearest town is the part most visitors need: the great lawn and the Crescent view, the Victoria Obelisk raised in 1837, and the Victoria Gate, restored along with the railings in a Heritage Lottery-funded project in 2007. The western end hides the Botanical Gardens, nine acres laid out in 1887, with mature trees, ponds and a small cascade, a replica Roman temple built for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition at Wembley and re-erected here in 1926, and the Great Dell, a former quarry planted with towering North American conifers. It is far quieter than the lawn and worth half an hour if you have it, but note that its gates open at nine and close at dusk. For Gulf families travelling with children, this is the stop that rescues the day: a large, free adventure playground with long slides, climbing nets and equipment for toddlers and older kids, with mini-golf and tennis courts beside it. The lawn is flat and pushchair-friendly; the Botanical Gardens have slopes and steps. On calm summer evenings hot-air balloons launch from the lawn at this end of the park, and watching them inflate is a free show if you happen to catch it, though take-off depends on the wind and nobody can promise it. From the Circus it is a five-minute walk, from Bath Spa station about twenty. Pay-and-display bays along the park roads fill quickly in July and August and at weekends. In winter the park stays open, but darkness falls around half past four in December and the lawn turns to mud after rain, so come in the morning and save the Botanical Gardens for a spring day.
The great lawn is the best spot for fitting the whole stone arc in one frame, best before noon with the sun behind you.
Nine quiet acres at the western end, with a replica Roman temple and a dell of American conifers planted in an old quarry.
A big free playground that keeps children busy for a full hour, with mini-golf and tennis courts next door.
Marlborough Lane, Bath BA1 2NQ
Royal CrescentThirty houses bend into a single arc some 150 metres long, carried on 114 Ionic 2 minutes walk4.5
No. 1 Royal CrescentThirty terraced houses in a single sweep of honey-coloured stone above a green l3 minutes walk4.4
Herschel Museum of AstronomyOn the night of 13 March 1781, in a back garden no bigger than a family living r5 minutes walk4.6
The Circus, BathThe diameter of this ring of stone is, give or take a few feet, that of Stonehen6 minutes walk4.4
The Jane Austen CentreJane Austen never lived here. She lodged for a few months in 1805 at number 25, 7 minutes walk4.4You will pass through it anyway, because it is where the Royal Crescent photo is taken, so give the lawn twenty minutes. With children, add an hour for the playground, the best free break in the city. Skip the Botanical Gardens if time is tight; they are lovely, but not what you came to Bath for.
No guarantee. They launch from the park lawn only on calm summer evenings and are often called off at the last minute for wind. If you want to fly, book with an operator in advance and expect a possible postponement; if you only want to watch, come around six or seven in the evening on a clear, still day and treat it as a bonus, not an appointment.