Bath Assembly Rooms were the social heart of Georgian Bath, designed by John Wood the Younger in 1769 and completed in 1771, when they were called the most noble and elegant of any in the kingdom. The New or Upper Rooms hosted balls, concerts, teas and gambling for polite society, including Jane Austen, who set scenes from two novels here, Charles Dickens and Thomas Gainsborough, and the Grade I listed building is one of the largest surviving assembly rooms in Britain. The Rooms are closed for renovation and the National Trust expects to welcome visitors back in 2027 with a new Georgian experience that transports people into the late eighteenth-century social scene; meanwhile Wessex Archaeology has unearthed wig curlers, wine bottles and tobacco pipes beneath the building. Earlier visitors remember the chandeliers of the Ball Room, Tea Room and Octagon. One tip from regulars: there is virtually no on-street parking, so use the park and ride.
