With plans of one day relocating to Bath, renting an apartment to coincide with the Bath Christmas Market seemed the perfect way to experience a festive weekend in the city, even if the magnificent Circus House residence we were staying in might turn out to be something of a fantasy. With sublime Georgian architecture, grand staircases, and ceilings reaching almost to heaven, I was ready to move in – bag and baggage. Built between 1754 and 1768, The Circus is considered the masterpiece of John Wood the Elder and has become as iconic a landmark of the city as the Royal Crescent. Although the three equally impressive flights of stairs made lugging a large suitcase into our temporary abode something of an effort, the spectacular views were well worth it.
The Grade 1 listed Circus House Apartment is a welcome blend of the traditional and contemporary, with an immaculate modern kitchen and bathroom along with elegant sash windows. I couldn’t wait to kick my shoes off, put the kettle on and relax. My darling even presented me with a Christmas card for the mantelpiece. An apartment feels exclusive and private in a way a hotel never can, and whilst I love having my toilet paper folded into a neat arrow and my bed turned down at night (not forgetting the chocolate on my pillow), these were services I was happy to forgo in return for a front door and kitchen all of my own. What’s the good of visiting the weekly Farmer’s Market if you can’t cook? Don’t get the idea that I intended to slave away the entire time, but kitchens give me a bizarre feeling of liberation, even if it only involves toasting my own toast or boiling my own kettle.
Immature perhaps, but there was nothing so exciting as popping to Waitrose for a bottle of wine before collecting a takeaway curry from the award-winning Eastern Eye and heading ‘home’. When you’ve been to a city as many times as my chap and I had Bath – it means you love it rain or shine. You can see beyond the regular tourist attractions and predictable haunts (not that we don’t enjoy those too) and start rambling with insider’s knowledge and a map subconsciously, yet firmly, planted in your head. As always, we spent many a happy afternoon dodging the rain and burying our noses in Bath Old Books or looking for treasure in antique shops, where we would make friends with the owner’s cat and once chanced upon a 1930s silver-plated candelabra that we now light each night for dinner back in London – reminding us of our dream of a quieter existence. After a treasure hunt in the Bartlett Antiques Centre it’s our habit to mosey along to Cafe Lucca at The Loft for one of their ‘Gourmet Panini’ chicken club sandwiches or a slice of Tuscan walnut tart. The New York-style hangout really captures the cosmopolitan side of life here; never pretentious and effortlessly chic.
They say it’s normal to find the locals friendlier in a place where you’re only a day-tripper, but I swear there is an intoxicatingly sociable atmosphere about Bath. You enter a shop and the only way of selling something to you is by talking about everything under the sun apart from the item you appear to be interested in. It’s as if shop owners are too embarrassed. When they have finally exhausted questioning you on where you live and what you do for a living the owner leaps up and says ‘oh that item you’re holding is very fine! It doesn’t cost the earth either.’ Awkwardly, you return it to its original position, as if to convey ‘not today’ to which they respond by hiding their disappointment and inviting you to stay until the rain shower has passed. It’s a time-consuming but effective way of generating a crust and it’s worked for centuries.
The Bath Christmas Market is a fixed date in our diary; with cute wooden stalls surrounding the floodlit Abbey, there is no winter event more appealing than that of Christmas shopping outdoors, fuelled by mulled wine, mince pies, Bratwerst hot dogs, pork and stuffing rolls, crêpes and any other extremely unhealthy yet scrumptious snack that catches the eye, and for which the shopping invariably takes a backseat. Rest assured, we’ll be there again next month!
The Circus House Apartment, The Circus, Bath BA1. For more information, rates and bookings, visit the website.
Bath Christmas Market: For more information visit the website.
