A trip into a Bath chemist to buy a bar of coal-tar soap also – quite unexpectedly – plunged me deep into the city’s past!
Well it was more a case of stepping down into history – on the corner of Burton and New Bond Streets – as l went down the stairs and into the basement of what is now the Lifestyle Healthcare shop.
Seems it’s a popular tourist destination as – apart from what’s for sale – there’s an amazing subterranean space made up of stone arched cellars which – l was told – were built over the original street level.
You can look up at the skylight built into the pavement above and also see where rain water on the street surface is fed down a pipe into the old drains.
A very helpful and enthusiastic young lady said people are welcome to come take a look. It’s certainly very atmospheric!
Above the cellar tunnels, an old sign on the shop wall is apparently what hung on the exterior of the shop when it was a pharmacy in Victorian times.
