Bath
Friday 26-Sunday 27 July
CHANGE OF DATE from Friday 18–Sunday 20 July

Bath may not be famed for its twentieth century architecture but there is plenty in the City and the hills around to pique the interest of a keen C20 member. The weekend will begin on Friday evening when we will be given an introductory talk by a local historian about the Bath that could have been from Atkinson’s proposals of the 1920s, through Abercrombie’s plan to turn the Royal Crescent into the Council Offices, to Colin Buchanan’s plan to drive a motorway under the city centre! The impact of the Luftwaffe’s Baedeker bombings and the following ‘slum clearances’ will be explored too.
     The tour will consist of a day in the city looking at larger scale buildings and a day exploring residential architecture in the surrounding hills. We will begin at the University, where we will be based, looking at the 1960s RMJM designed campus with later additions by Alison and Peter Smithson including the 1986 Architecture School. This will be followed by the recently completed Wessex Water headquarters, designed by Bennetts Associates, which is one of the ‘greenest’ offices around. Continuing the commercial theme it is planned to see the recently listed Herman Miller factory by YRM (1967) and the Farrell Grimshaw building (1977) across the river for the same client. It is planned to end the day in an architect designed house overlooking the City. Outside of the trip but highly recommended is an evening session in the new Nicholas Grimshaw designed Spa, where a roof top pool gives fantastic views to the surrounding hills.
     Sunday will begin, as any Sunday rightly should, in church—Our Lady & St Alphege by Giles Gilbert Scott (1929) to be precise. This will be followed by a tour of 20th century houses from Voysey’s Lodge Style (1909) to Mitchell Taylor Workshop’s Moonshine (2006) via some mid-century modernism by Peter Womersley.

Meet: Early Friday evening, details to be confirmed in the joining letter
Cost: Members only, £190 (all accommodation at the University is in single rooms)

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