| Building of Bath Collection | |
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Location within Somerset and the United Kingdom
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| Established | 1992 |
| Location | The Paragon, Bath |
| Website | Building of Bath Collection from the Bath Preservation Trust |
The Building of Bath Collection (formerly known as the Building of Bath Museum) in Bath, Somerset, England provides exhibits which explain the building of the Georgian era city during the 18th century.
It is owned and managed by the Bath Preservation Trust.
The museum includes a series of models, maps, paintings and reconstructions to show how a typical Georgian house was constructed, from the ashlar stone to the decorative plasterwork. Sections include displays of stone mining, furniture making, painting, wallpaper, soft furnishings and upholstery. A model of Bath on a 1:500 scale gives a bird's-eye view of the city.
The study gallery specialises in books on architecture including the Bath Buildings Record and Coard Collection.[1]
The collection includes several works whose purchase was supported by the Art Fund. A panoramic view of Bath from Beechen Cliff, by Charles Joseph Hullmandel and dating from 1824 shows Bath as a still relatively small city, after its Georgian growth, but before the arrival of the railway and Victorian expansion. A slightly later panorama (1833) by Joseph William Allen (1803–1852) is of Bath from Lyncombe Hill, on the present site of 6 Carlton Road, and includes a gabled house in the immediate centre foreground which still stands and is reputed to have been the house in which Alexander Pope once stayed.[2]
The building which houses the Collection was built in 1765 as the Trinity Presbyterian Church. It was also known as the Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel, as she lived in the attached house from 1707–1791. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building.[3]