Grand Pump Room, Bath, Concert hall and spa house in Bath, England
The Grand Pump Room is a neoclassical concert hall and spa house in Bath, built over the Roman thermal spring and now housing a restaurant and visitor center. Corinthian columns support the ceiling, a music gallery projects from one wall, and a marble vase stands ready to dispense the mineral-rich spring water.
The current building opened in 1795 and replaced an earlier structure from 1706 commissioned at Beau Nash's urging. The new room was designed by Thomas Baldwin as part of the Georgian city renewal.
A piano trio performs almost daily, playing works from the 18th and 19th centuries while guests dine beneath the columns or sample the warm thermal water from the marble fountain. The room still serves as a gathering place, much as it did when fashionable society met here.
The room is accessible through the main entrance of the Roman Baths and can be visited during regular opening hours or reserved for dining. The thermal water can be sampled at the fountain without needing to order a full meal.
Jane Austen set scenes from Northanger Abbey and Persuasion in this room, where her characters met during the social season. The water served today comes from the same spring that flowed in Roman times, roughly 2000 years ago.
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