The Classical Building of Bath

208 pages. Architect Mike Jenner describes Bath's more notable classical buildings, expl ains the rules to which they were expected to conform, and tells how a few geniu ses broke them to move European architecture and urban planning triumphantly for ward. The book ranges from the Roman era through eighteenth-century showpieces s uch as John Wood's Circus and Royal Crescent to the controversial late twentieth -century Cavendish Lodge.The author shows how the problem of designing bu ildings which fit harmoniously into their context is not new, and gives examples of eighteenth-century classical buildings in Bath which caused serious visual d amage to the earlier ones around them. He explains how this reflected the see-sa w of fashion, with the work of every generation despised and rejected by the nex t, and then brought back into esteem by a later one.The Classical Buildin gs of Bath demonstrates the pleasure to be obtained from looking at classical bu ildings with proper understanding and the benefit of Stephen Morris' superlative photographs.…