The Circus

Welcome to The Circus, one of the most sophisticated and symbolically rich examples of Georgian urban design in existence. Designed by John Wood the Elder and built between 1754 and 1768, this circular development consists of…

To truly appreciate the scholarship behind The Circus, one must look closely at the columns that unify the facades. John Wood the Elder was a master of the neoclassical style, and he used the three main orders of Greek and Roman…

If you look above the ground-floor Doric columns, you will discover a fascinating detail that many visitors overlook: a continuous frieze containing over five hundred unique stone murals. These small, circular carvings are a…

The center of The Circus is dominated by a lush green lawn and several magnificent, towering plane trees. However, this was not part of John Wood’s original vision. …

The Circus has always been a prestigious address, attracting the intellectual and political elite of the day. One of the most famous residents was Thomas Gainsborough, the renowned portrait and landscape painter, who lived and…

As you leave The Circus heading west, you enter Brock Street, the short but elegant thoroughfare that connects The Circus to the Royal Crescent. This walk is an essential part of the Bath experience, as it allows you to…

Look up to the very top of the houses in The Circus, and you will see the attic floor, often characterized by smaller windows and located just below the roofline. This is where the domestic staff lived—the servants who kept these…

The Circus remains a place of profound mystery and beauty, a stone circle for the modern age. John Wood the Elder’s obsession with the past and his desire to create a 'New Rome' in the hills of Somerset resulted in a landmark…