The Citty of Bath

View of Bath taken from the Southern Hill, showing its development as a Georgian city. During the 18th century it became a fashionable pleasure resort and as such was massively rebuilt and renovated. The result was spectacular: the medieval city plan was replaced with an orderly series of squares, crescents and terraces. Its elegant townhouses made it one of the most beautiful cities of its era.This 1727 view shows bath at a relatively early stage in its redevelopment. It still has its medieval city wall and a rather cluttered, compact plan of narrow streets. As Daniel Defoe, who visited Bath around this time, commented: "Indeed it would have been a very small city, (if at all a city) were it not for the hot baths here, which give both name and fame to the place."