Long Britain’s pre-eminent spa destination, Bath is again the preferred place to take the waters.
Roman treasures and Georgian architecture attract about 4.2 million visitors annually to Britain’s historic city of Bath. Now, for the first time in almost three decades, they can follow in the footsteps of Romans and Georgians, bathing in the hot mineral springs of the new Thermae Bath Spa.
The project originally received a sizeable grant of £7.8 million ($18 million) from the Millennium Commission with the aim of reopening the Roman baths that had been closed in 1978 following a health scare, and reviving thousands of years of spa culture. But delays plagued the launch. Although the original cost of the facility was projected at £26m ($61m), the final cost blew out to £45m ($105m) – much to the horror of locals. Yet despite the headaches, legal wrangles and three-year delay, it is worth the wait.
Every major period of Bath’s history, from Roman through to modern, can be linked to the town’s natural hot springs. The Romans first came to Bath some 2000 years ago for rest and relaxation. In the monastic period, people sought the healing properties of the water and, in Elizabethan times, Queen Elizabeth I created a charter to ensure the waters remained accessible to the town’s citizens. The opening of the complex has re-established the town’s most treasured natural asset, explains Fiona Humphreys, formerly marketing executive of the Thermae Bath Spa, now at Bath Tourism. The healing waters – claimed to cure leprosy, forgetfulness, arthritis and rheumatic and muscular disorders – drew fans until WWII, when people stopped travelling for leisure, marking the death knell of the spa industry.
However, spa culture has seen a revival around the world and Bath is again on the map. The new spa sits in the heart of a city classed a World Heritage site, just 100m from the Roman Baths, the best preserved religious spa of its period. The new baths blend elements from that era along with medieval, Georgian and Victorian features.
The Cross Bath, which is recognised as an ancient Celtic sacred site, has been restored as an open-air thermal pool. A further four historic buildings have been combined with an unmistakably 21st-century spa housed in a new glass building offering the latest facilities and treatments. The highlights are four natural thermal bathing pools, a series of innovative steam rooms, a range of spa treatments harnessing the therapeutic benefits of the mineral-rich spring water and a spectacular rooftop pool overlooking the city and hills beyond.
Complementing Bath’s 18th-century urban landscape, Britain’s only natural thermal spa draws its waters from Hetling Spring, Cross Spring and King’s Spring. More than one million litres of natural thermal water wells up from the three springs daily at an average temperature of 46°C.
Visitors enter the six-level spa via a new curved glass facade on Bath Street, where both the Georgian Pump Room and the Bath Abbey are located. Humphreys says the new spa has attracted worldwide interest and will fuel increased tourism. “It has put the soul back into the city. After all, it’s the reason Bath existed in the first place.”
For further information see: Visit Bath or
Thermae Bath Spa