Putting Bath On The Map

A private collection of maps of Bath, dating from c. 1600 to the present day will be unveiled at the Building of Bath Collection on 19 February 2011. Collectively these maps tell the story of the city’s evolution from the medieval city to the Georgian spa and beyond. The maps also reveal the development of map making as both an art and a science.

Until the rapid transformation of the Georgian period, Bath remained a city largely contained within its medieval walls. Three beautiful early maps illustrate this from a birds-eye perspective – those by Savile (c. 1600), Speed (1611) and Gilmore (1694). The only known original map by Savile has sadly been lost, but fortunately a transparency of the map was made before the map disappeared and the exhibition will feature a high quality reproduction kindly provided by Bath In Time.

The exhibition then showcases a series of maps from the eighteenth century that document the city’s transformation at 10-15 yearly intervals. From these maps you get a sense of the extraordinarily dynamic transformation of the city during the eighteenth century, where rapid change forced an almost constant revision of the city’s maps. The exhibition will also feature maps produced for contemporary guide books to the city demonstrating that Bath’s status as a high class destination encouraged a competitive map making industry.

The exhibition closes with highly detailed surveys of 19th century Bath and an example of twentieth century pictorial mapping which bears interesting comparison with the bird’s-eye views from the seventeenth century. The exhibition will also feature on a rotating basis, one of the 74 sheets from the 1:500 Ordnance Survey of Bath completed in 1886. This extraordinarily detailed map of the city – 10.56 feet to one mile – is the largest scale map of the city ever produced.

Walking Tour

Thursday 22 September
Bath before the Georgians – A walking tour following Joseph Gilmore’s 1694 map of The City of Bath.
9.30am – 1.00pm

Start and finish at the Building of Bath Collection

*Introduction from Building Historian Kay Ross
*Refreshments
*Walking tour
*Lunch

£25 per head (£15 concessions).
Bookings: 01225 333895 or jhunter@bptrust,org.uk

If you require accommodation during this exhibition, use the 'Book Accommodation Nearby' box to the right, or use the Accommodation tab at the top of the page. This will provide you with an online booking service for accommodation in Bath and the surrounding area. Alternatively, contact our personal accommodation booking service: + 44 (0) 844 847 5256.