These are the Parade Gardens in Bath and I thought that they looked surprisingly busy given that there’s an admission charge to enter them. Or, at least, I thought there was a charge and then I noticed that the ticket booth was closed. It’s in a decadent location, the gardens sit beside the River Avon and look across towards Pulteney Bridge. And, as they were free, I decided to investigate.
The history goes back to the early eighteenth century, when the area was laid out in 1709 as St. James’s Park, linked with the Assembly Rooms built for fashionable spa visitors. This was the Bath of Beau Nash, promenading, social display and people taking themselves very seriously in wigs, the Richard type middle class of their time only probably with more powder and fewer computers. A gravel walk known as Harrison’s Walk was laid out along the edge of the site and the gardens formed part of the wider pleasure-ground world around the Abbey, Terrace Walk and Orange Grove. In 1824, when the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution was built on the site of the former Assembly Rooms, the gardens became known as Institution Gardens, because nothing improves a garden quite like giving it a name that sounds as though it may require a committee. Unfortunately, the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution was demolished and is now under a road system, but I’m sure that it was nice when it lasted.
The gardens changed again in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as Bath remodelled the surrounding streets, demolished buildings and adjusted the relationship between the gardens, Grand Parade and the river. Historic England notes that they came into council ownership in the 1930s and were laid out as a municipal park in 1933 to 1934, which gives them their more formal public garden character.
It is a rather lovely place, although they’ve decided to start charging for the toilets but that feels like a fair deal for allowing free entrance to the gardens. I was able to find a bench to sit down on to enjoy the lovely views, albeit they were primarily of my phone, but it’s nice to be in nature when looking at my phone as doom scrolling is better surrounded by trees. I did wonder for a while why no-one was sitting on the benches here, but I realised that they were in shade and the cold which probably suited me more than most as I’ve developed to be fonder of the refrigerated section of horticulture. But it was all a very lovely little pause in the heart of Bath and that view of Bath Abbey in the above photo was agreeable.