British Spa Landscapes - Spa Gardens Legacy at Bath, a World Heritage Site

A strong tradition of health tourism at spa resorts in continental Europe has identified the ‘Kurpark’ and ‘Kurgarten’ (spa parks and spa gardens), as a subtype in garden history, in which the planted environment is an integral part of the visitor experience, an important element of ‘the cure’. Of the many spas in existence at some time in Britain, landscape designed for ‘taking the waters’ has featured in a high proportion of the locations. This series of talks looks at notable examples, identifying the characteristics and influence of their planned landscape.

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This ticket is for this individual session and costs £5, and you may purchase tickets for other individual sessions via the links below, or you may purchase a ticket for the entire course of 5 sessions at a cost of £20 via the link here.

Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

Due to a recent Apple decision to charge a 30% fee for paid online events unfortunately you may no longer be able to purchase this ticket from the Eventbrite iOS app. Please use a web browser on desktop or mobile to purchase or follow the link here.

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Week 1. 20 September: Spa Gardens Legacy at Bath, a World Heritage Site. First in a series of 5 online lectures, £5 each or all 5 for £20.

Week 2. 27 September: Gardens for Health Tourism 1609 -2022. Second in a series of 5 online lectures, £5 each or all 5 for £20.

Week 3. 4 October: ‘Leafy Leamington’. Third in a series of 5 online lectures, £5 each or all 5 for £20.

Week 4. 11 October: A Lost Spa Garden at Dorton Spa Buckinghamshire. Fourth in a series of 5 online lectures, £5 each or all 5 for £20.

Week 5. 18 October: 150 years of Edward Milner’s Buxton Pavilion Garden. Last in a series of 5 online lectures, £5 each or all 5 for £20.

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Week 1. 20 September: Spa Gardens Legacy at Bath, a World Heritage Site with Christopher Pound

Gardens have always been an essential attribute for all European spa towns. Walking in gardens was important as a diversion from treatments at the mineral springs and baths but they also provided places of entertainment, pleasure and exercise. Bath had several pleasure gardens, but Sydney Gardens survives as the last of the Vauxhalls. Spa gardens in Bath evolved from a formal ‘baroque style’ to take on a character drawn from and influencing the fashionable ‘picturesque’. Many Continental spa towns included gardens laid out in an English informal garden style and some of these were called the ‘English Garden’. The principal gardens in Bath informed the architecture and development of the built form in the city. Eighteenth century doctors in Bath realized that leisure and exercise made an important contribution to restoring and maintaining health and so the gardens and setting of the city were essential parts of the cure and still are. Accordingly, all the gardens, green spaces, woodlands and fabric of the city with its attractive surrounding countryside are a ‘therapeutic landscape’. This is an embracing attribute for the eleven spa towns in the recent UNESCO inscription of ‘The Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site’.

Image: Therapeutic countryside just outside of Bath c.1795 J. Walker.

Chris Pound is an architect and a town planner who led teams that prepared the Development Plan, Landscape Strategy and the Conservation Team for the City of Bath and he worked on developing policies for the city following its inscription in 1987 on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Chris joined the ICOMOS-UK World Heritage Committee in 1992 and contributed to the creation of the Local Authority World Heritage Forum in 1996. Chris is a Churchill Travelling Fellow. In 1999 he examined the approaches to presentation of values at twelve World Heritage cities in Europe. In Britain, Chris contributed to the nomination of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal World Heritage Site. More recently, he contributed to the nomination of the Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021 which includes the city of Bath.

www.bathworldheritage.org.uk/great-spa-towns-europe

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