Another cleaning job! Is this the start of the programme to remove the unauthorised paint from the columns in Bath Street?
Indeed it is! I went back today in time to witness most of the columns covered in scaffolding and plastic sheeting.
They were all painted – on one side – as part of a store renovation but – as it turns out – without permission.
It’s a heritage area and such ‘sprucing up’ would not be allowed. Anyway – the ‘intervention’ is about to be carefully undone.
Look around a bit and you can see where they have been testing a cleaning method. Quite successfully by the look of it!
I am still so amazed at how close the side door to the Pump Room and Roman Baths is to the colonnades of unfluted Ionic columns and still cannot understand why no one within our premier World Heritage site saw the painting in progress!
Those colonnades, by the way, were designed to give shelter to sedan chairs bearing sickly patients between the baths.
Bath Street was built by Thomas Baldwin in 1791. It was originally named Cross Bath Street as it contains the Cross Bath at one end. That too has weeds growing out of the top of it!
Considering that several of the buildings within the street have a Grade 1 listing it’s a shame to see how run down things are.
By the way, has this business permission to permanently block the passageway on one side of the colonnade?
A bit of the ceiling has collapsed near the Thermae Spa which – by the way – appears to have painted columns outside its entrance.
Did B&NES and or YTL give itself permission to apply it?!
The World Heritage brass symbol – at the Roman Bath’s end – could do with a renovation of the cobbles around it and – while l am in the area – how soon are we going to see a plaque – marking our second World Heritage inscription as one of the Great Spas of Europe – under the first?
With our tourism recovering, we musn’t short-change our visitors!
I have approached B&NES for comment and can now give you an update!
Two emails have been received from the Planning Department explaining that cases have been ‘opened’ for both the painted columns outside the Thermae Spa and the wooden structure.
However, the department is suffering a temporary shortage of staff and has to prioritise the most urgent cases, so we will have to await developments.
