It’s cleaning time in the ballroom at Bath’s Assembly Rooms. These are some of the most important chandeliers to have survived from the 18th century.
Mounted on pulleys they are lowered twice a year for cleaning. The three in the tea room and the five here in the ballroom are by William Parker of Fleet Street.
An earlier set in the ballroom – made by Jonathan Collett – were dismantled just one month after the Rooms opened in 1771.
Seems part of one of them collapsed arm and fell to the floor – narrowly missing painter Thomas Gainsborough as he danced beneath.
They were taken down and the best bits put together to form a singular large chandelier for the Octagon. This is where fortunes were made or lost at the card tables.
