Bath Assembly Rooms

The Bath Assembly Rooms, designed by John Wood, the Younger in 1769, are a set of elegant assembly rooms located in the heart of the World Heritage City of Bath in England which are now open to the public as a visitor attraction. They are designated as a Grade I listed building.

During the Georgian era Bath became fashionable. The architects John Wood, the Elder and his son John Wood, the Younger laid out new areas of housing for residents and visitors. Assembly rooms had been built early in the 18th century, but a new venue for balls, concerts and gambling was envisaged in the area between Queen Square, The Circus and the Royal Crescent. Robert Adam submitted a proposal that was rejected as too expensive. John Wood, the Younger raised funding through a Tontine and construction started in 1769. The New or Upper Assembly Rooms opened with a grand ball in 1771 and became the hub of fashionable society, being frequented by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, along with the nobility of the time.

Bath International Music Festival

The Bath International Music Festival is held late each spring in Bath, South West England. Inaugurated in 1948, the festival includes many genres such as Jazz, Classical, World and Folk. The Festival's Programmers are James Waters (Classical) and Serious (Jazz and World).

History

Originally known as the Bath Assembly, the festival was first directed by the impresario Ian Hunter in 1948. After the first year the city tried to run the festival itself, but in 1955 asked Hunter back. In 1959, Hunter invited Yehudi Menuhin to become artistic director of the Festival, a post he held until 1968. The Festival has in the past included non-musical events such as talks and guided walks around the city.

Programme

The festival takes place annually over 12 days in late May, and stage a range of events featuring orchestral and classical virtuosos, jazz, folk, roots and world musicians, with collaborations and commissioned works. The musicians include established and emerging artists, students from a wide range of conservatoires, universities and colleges, and local musicians, both professional and amateur. The programme is supported with films, talks, multi media events, music theatre, exhibitions, dance and site specific projects.

Assembly rooms

In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there were few public places of entertainment open to both sexes besides theatres (and there were few of those outside London). Upper class men had more options, including coffee houses and later gentlemen's clubs.

Major sets of assembly rooms in London, in spa towns such as Bath, and in important provincial cities such as York, were able to accommodate hundreds, or in some cases over a thousand people for events such as masquerade balls (masked balls), conventional balls, public concerts and assemblies (simply gatherings for conversation, perhaps with incidental music and entertainments) or Salons. By later standards these were formal events: the attendees were usually screened to make sure no one of insufficient rank gained admittance; admission might be subscription only; and unmarried women were chaperoned. Nonetheless, assemblies played an important part in the marriage market of the day.

Assembly rooms (disambiguation)

Assembly rooms may refer to:

Assembly Rooms (Edinburgh)

The Assembly Rooms are in central Edinburgh. Originally solely a meeting place for social gatherings, it is now also used as an arts venue and for public events, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Hogmanay celebrations. There are four rooms that are used year-round and are available for private functions: Music Hall, Ballroom, Supper Room and Edinburgh Suite. The building is protected as a category A listed building as "an outstanding example of the late 18th century public building, continuing its original use".

History

The Assembly Rooms opened on 11 January 1787 for the Caledonian Hunt Ball. The building was funded by public subscription, costing over £6,000. The prominent site at the centre of George Street, in the centre of the recently established New Town, was donated by the town council. The Assembly Rooms was designed by John Henderson, a local architect, who died young shortly after the building was completed.

The building was extended several times during the 19th century. In 1818 a portico was added by William Burn. Burn and his partner David Bryce designed the Music Hall in 1843. Finally, in 1907, new side wings were completed to designs by Robert Rowand Anderson and Balfour Paul.