Chairman's Notes

Chairman's Notes – News Notes Winter 2005

Welcome to this first edition of the Newsletter to be published in cyberspace. We shall continue to publish in paper form for more traditional readers, alias technophobes, but we feel that this, combined with the launch of our website (www.royalcrescentbath.com), is a major leap forward into the 21st century.

To mark our arrival on the internet stage a reception was held at the Royal Crescent Hotel in September. This attracted a good attendance, including the Deputy Mayor of Bath, Cllr Mrs Lynda Hedges and our Ward and other Councillors. The opportunity was taken to announce the news that B&NES had appointed a Design Consultant for the Restoration project and expected the Restoration of both the Railings and Ha-ha to be completed by the end of 2006, which was well received.

Since then, news of progress in agreeing specifications with English Heritage and setting a timetable for the various steps leading up to the commencement of the works has been hard to elicit from B&NES. They have this week re-confirmed the end of 2006 for completion and English Heritage have declared that a solution to the Lawnside Pavement problem must be achieved concurrently.

An important step forward in rectifying John Wood’s omission to make satisfactory arrangements for maintenance of the Lawn and its boundaries was made when a meeting of freeholders was held at the Hotel. This endorsed the plan outlined in the Spring Newsletter (no. 56) and agreed at the RCS AGM in April, and it seems that a majority, if not all freeholders will participate. This will simplify the task of collecting sufficient funds to maintain the Lawn to an appropriate standard, ensure that those who benefit pay towards its upkeep, and put arrangements for Lawn maintenance on a sounder footing than hitherto.

When new proposals were published in August for parking regulations in the Central Zone, many residents were alarmed to see that they included all-day midweek parking on the Lawn side of the Crescent. With the memory of the improvement in appearance of the Crescent when cars were removed on the occasion of the Three Tenors Concert in 2003, the prospect of the Crescent being used as a car park, and the newly restored railings being largely obscured from view, was not welcomed.

The RCS Committee, mindful of the dilemma between wishing to see sufficient parking space for residents and its duty to safeguard the appearance of the Crescent, sought a compromise which would preserve the vista and still provide enough parking space. We are grateful to B&NES for recognising the argument for treating the Crescent as a special case and reducing the amount of space allocated for pay & display parking while keeping the proposals for residents-only spaces.

Those who thought that the Royal Crescent was an automatic choice to replace Mayfair on the Bath Monopoly board were taken aback to discover that the Roman Baths had been placed in that prime position, relegating the Crescent to the equivalent of Park Lane, valued at a mere £350! At least it’s still well away from the Parking space ….
 

Stephen Little Chairman, Royal Crescent Society

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Members without internet access can request copies of the articles from:

The Editor

RCS

28A Royal Crescent

07770 738435

Alternately there is a full copy of all the site available to be borrowed on request.

Crescent Life:  

Read about that ever present Crescent person? more...

Read about the lady who has written literally hundreds of children's books. more...NEW

Read about the lady with her own Grotto on the crescent. more... NEW

Look at the cats parade in Kitty Korner. more...NEW

Issues:

You can now read about the proposed parking solution for the Crescent, view the latest correspondence, press coverage and forward us your views...NEW

Read the latest update on the restoration project... NEW

Read the latest on the Julian Road Scheme...NEW

Under Council matters you can also link on to their planning site, enter street name Royal Crescent and view all applications and their status against each house more...

Events: NEW

Read about recent sunny events and the successful launch of www.royalcrescentbath.com, plus details about the Xmas festive dinner  more...

Archives:

Read previous printed newsletters and news notes now available online (we still need 1 to 12 if anyone has them). Coming soon copies of AGMs and Committee minutes. more...

Committee Members:

You can now recognise those committee members who work on our behalf, as their photographs are now online more...

Remember, all contributions, letters, photographs etc. are welcome.

Non Members Area

Royal Crescent Society:

Read about the Society's achievements; victory over the Topless Talking Buses (from a full copy of the Society's transport report of 1985, through to the final victory in 1999), rooftop aerials, civic-wide resident groups, parking charges, relaying the pavement. more...

News and Events:

The Royal Crescent has been voted one of the country's top ten archetetural icons in a recent poll by Channel Four. It will feature in the Programme "The Architeture Programme" presented by Kevin McCloud of "Grand Design" fame. more...

Read the detailed archive of the those three operatic concerts and see some wonderful photos of the events. more...

Picture Gallery and References:

Look at historic illustrations, photographs of both the Crescent and some interiors of the houses from 1773 to the 1970s more...

Read our new Filmography and link to a full page on Northanger Abbey and some wonderful photographs of its filming. more...

Read our new Bibliography and of many new and rare books featuring the Crescent. more...

History:

The Crescent History has been significantly developed with much new material including:

eleven archive articles under Society archive more...

biographies of past famous residents (many under kind permission of Redcliffe Press) and others from our archive, plus the 1891 census more...

Bath history; Georgian Times has been updated by Mike Daw and Bath Magazine has kindly given permission for us to reprint one of their latest archive articles on John Wood more...

Read a fascinating article written by the Crescent's own George Saintsbury on "Bath in Literature" more...

General Information:

Read about what to see in and around Bath and link to individual sites for more information more...

Read about a special Bath game for all...

Read about what's on in Bath more...

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Your Editorial Team

Martyn and Annie Daniels

28A Royal Crescent, BA1 2LT

editor@royalcrescentbath.com