Beckford's Tower, originally known as Lansdown Tower, is an architectural

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

built in

neo-classical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

Lansdown Hill Charlcombe is a civil parish and small village just north of Bath in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority, Somerset, England. The parish had a population of 422 in 2011, and includes the villages of Woolley and Langridge and the ha ...

, just outside

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England. The tower and its attached railings are designated as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. Along with the adjoining Lansdown Cemetery it is Grade II listed on the

Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England The Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England provides a listing and classification system for historic parks and gardens similar to that used for listed buildings. The register is managed by Historic England ...

. The tower was built for

William Thomas Beckford William Thomas Beckford (29 September 1760 – 2 May 1844) was an English novelist, art collector, patron of decorative art, critic, travel writer, plantation owner and for some time politician. He was reputed at one stage to be England's riches ...

, a rich

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

, art collector and critic, to designs by

Henry Goodridge Henry Edmund Goodridge (1797, Bath – 26 October 1864) was an English architect based in Bath. He worked from the early 1820s until the 1850s, using Classical, Italianate and Gothic styles. Life He was born in Bath in 1797 the son of James Goo ...

, and was completed in 1827. Beckford used it as a library and a retreat, with the

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

at the top acting as a

belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa *Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco *Belvedere, Harare, Zim ...

providing views over the surrounding countryside. The

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

building at the base of the tower housed drawing rooms and a library. Extensive grounds between Beckford's house in Lansdown Crescent and the tower were landscaped and planted to create Beckford's Ride. William Beckford's ability to build, and to collect, was made possible by the wealth he inherited and continued to accumulate as an owner of plantations and enslaved people, and through the compensation he received from the government following the abolition of slavery. This aspect of his life is explored within the Beckford Tower Museum displays. Following Beckford's death in 1844, the tower and lands were donated to Walcot parish and a burial ground created, with the Scarlet Drawing Room being converted into a chapel. In 1931 the house and tower were damaged by a fire and a public appeal was made for funds for its restoration. The cemetery closed in 1992 and the next year the site was bought by the

Bath Preservation Trust The Bath Preservation Trust is a charity that is based in Bath, Somerset, England, which exists to safeguard for the public benefit the historic character and amenities of the city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its environs. The trust is i ...

who have carried out extensive renovation. It is now home to a museum displaying furniture originally made for the tower and paintings, prints and objects illustrating Beckford's life as a writer, collector and patron of the arts.

History

William Thomas Beckford (1 October 1760 – 2 May 1844)

Beckford's Tower in Lansdown overlooking the city of

, was completed in 1827 for wealthy local resident William Beckford, to a design by Bath architect

. Beckford was a

, an art collector and patron of works of decorative art, a critic, travel writer and sometime politician, reputed at one stage to be the richest

commoner A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...

in England. In 1822 he sold

Fonthill Abbey Fonthill Abbey—also known as Beckford's Folly—was a large Gothic Revival country house built between 1796 and 1813 at Fonthill Gifford in Wiltshire, England, at the direction of William Thomas Beckford and architect James Wyatt. It was b ...

, and a large part of his art collection, to John Farquhar for £330,000, and moved to Bath, where he bought No. 20 Lansdown Crescent and No. 1 Lansdown Place West, joining them with a one-storey arch thrown across a driveway. In 1836 he also bought Nos. 18 and 19 Lansdown Crescent. Located at the end of pleasure gardens called Beckford's Ride which ran from his house in Lansdown Crescent all the way north to the tower at the top of Lansdown Hill, Beckford used the monument as both a library and a retreat. He also made it his habit to ride up to the tower to view the progress of gardens and works, then walk back down to Lansdown Crescent for breakfast. From the top of the tower, with a strong spyglass, Beckford could make out shipping in the

Bristol Channel The Bristol Channel ( cy, Môr Hafren, literal translation: "Severn Sea") is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Seve ...

. Beckford wished that he had built the tower forty feet higher and admitted: "such as it is, it is a famous landmark for drunken farmers on their way home from market". Beckford's own choice of the best of works of art, ''

vertu Vertu is a British-based manufacturer and retailer of luxury handmade mobile phones, established by Finnish mobile-phone manufacturer Nokia in 1998. Concept According to ''The Economist'', the concept was to market phones explicitly as fashio ...

'', books and prints, as well as the rich furnishings from Fonthill Abbey, were rehoused in his adjoining houses in Lansdown Crescent, Bath and at the tower. One long narrow room in the tower was fitted out as an "oratory", where the paintings were all of devotional subjects and a marble ''Virgin and Child'' stood bathed in light from a hidden skylight. In 1841 some of the contents of the tower were sold during a two-day sale and the rooms refurnished.

Later owners

After Beckford's death on 2 May 1844 his younger daughter Susan Euphemia Beckford, wife of

Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton Alexander Hamilton, 10th Duke of Hamilton, 7th Duke of Brandon KG PC FRS FSA (3 October 1767 – 18 August 1852) was a Scottish politician and art collector. Life Born on 3 October 1767 at St. James's Square, London, a son of Archibald H ...

, removed the books and greatest treasures to

Hamilton Palace Hamilton Palace was a country house in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The former seat of the Dukes of Hamilton, it dated from the 14th century and was subsequently much enlarged in the 17th and 19th centuries.reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

, however. In 1847 the tower was sold for £1,000 to a local publican who turned it into a beer garden. Eventually it was re-purchased by Beckford's daughter, who gave the surrounding land to Walcot parish for consecration as a cemetery in 1848. This enabled the return of Beckford's body from his tomb in

Bath Abbey Cemetery The Anglican Bath Abbey Cemetery, officially dedicated as the Cemetery of St Peter and St Paul (the patron saints that Bath Abbey is dedicated to), was laid out by noted cemetery designer and landscape architect John Claudius Loudon (1783–184 ...

, Lyncombe Vale (off Ralph Allen Drive) for reburial near the tower as he had originally wished. His self-designed tomb – a massive

sarcophagus A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek ...

of polished

pink granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergrou ...

with bronze armorial plaques – stands on a hillock in the cemetery surrounded by an oval ditch and

ha-ha A ha-ha (french: hâ-hâ or ), also known as a sunk fence, blind fence, ditch and fence, deer wall, or foss, is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier (particularly on one side) while preserving an uninterrupted view ...

. On one side is a quotation from his Gothic novel ''

Vathek ''Vathek'' (alternatively titled ''Vathek, an Arabian Tale'' or ''The History of the Caliph Vathek'') is a Gothic novel written by William Beckford. It was composed in French beginning in 1782, and then translated into English by Reverend Sam ...

'': "Enjoying humbly the most precious gift of heaven to man – Hope"; and on another these lines from his poem, ''A Prayer'': "Eternal Power! Grant me, through obvious clouds one transient gleam Of thy bright essence in my dying hour." The Scarlet Drawing Room was converted into a chapel in 1848 to serve the cemetery. In 1864 the Rector of Walcot gave £100 for the repair of tower stonework and in 1884 a similar amount of money for further repairs to the upper part of the tower, but the condition of the stonework was deteriorating by 1898 and described in 1918 as "piteous and dilapidated". In 1931 an unexplained fire destroyed much of the interior of the house, which had been turned into a cemetery chapel. The local

fire brigade A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

managed to stop the fire reaching the wooden stairs to the top of the tower.

Prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Roman Catholic or Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in particular seats, usually at the back of the ...

F. E. Murphy, the rector of Walcot, established an appeal for funds of £300 for the restoration. By 1954 the stairs up the tower had become unsafe and a further appeal for public funds for the restoration was started. In 1970 the

Church Commissioners The Church Commissioners is a body which administers the property assets of the Church of England. It was established in 1948 and combined the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Eccle ...

declared the chapel redundant and plans drawn up by the new owners, Dr & Mrs Hilliard, to renovate the tower and create two flats. In 1972 the tower was designated as a Grade I

. The Beckford Tower Trust and the museum were established in 1977.

Bath Preservation Trust

Since 1993 the tower has been owned by the

and managed by its subsidiary, The Beckford Tower Trust, a registered charity. The tower was restored in 1995 and was opened to the public in 2001. The ground floor of the tower is available to rent through the

Landmark Trust The Landmark Trust is a British building conservation charity, founded in 1965 by Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or architectural merit and then makes them available for holiday rental. The Trust's headqua ...

as a holiday home. In 2019,

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

placed the tower on their

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for actio ...

as it was suffering from water penetration. In the same year, Bath Preservation Trust announced it was raising funds for a £3million project to restore the tower and surroundings, including the grotto tunnel, and increase public engagement. An initial £390,900 was received from the

National Lottery Heritage Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

in December 2019, and the trust was able to buy the site, of about 2.5 acres, in 2021. In September 2022, a £3 million grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund was confirmed, reaching the then fundraising target of £3.9 million.

Architecture

Standing high, the tower has three stages. The first stage is square with small windows and terminates in a

Doric Doric may refer to: * Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece ** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians * Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture * Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode * Doric dialect (Scotland) * Doric ...

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

and

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

. The second stage has plain square

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

forming three openings with recessed arches. The tower is topped by a gilded lantern (or

), based on the

peripteral A peripteros (a peripteral building, grc-gre, περίπτερος) is a type of ancient Greek or Roman temple surrounded by a portico with columns. It is surrounded by a colonnade (''pteron'') on all four sides of the ''cella'' (''naos''), creat ...

temple at Tivoli and the

Tower of the Winds The Tower of the Winds or the Horologion of Andronikos Kyrrhestes is an octagonal Pentelic marble clocktower in the Roman Agora in Athens that functioned as a ''horologion'' or "timepiece". It is considered the world's first meteorological stati ...

at Athens. The octagonal belvedere has a

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

roof supported by eight columns. A stone spiral

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

ed staircase leads to the 53 wooden stairs giving access to the

at the summit. At the base of the tower was a furnace and pump which sent warm air up through the structure. Below the tower is an

building. On the ground floor was the Scarlet Drawing Room and a

vestibule Vestibule or Vestibulum can have the following meanings, each primarily based upon a common origin, from early 17th century French, derived from Latin ''vestibulum, -i n.'' "entrance court". Anatomy In general, vestibule is a small space or cavity ...

with an annexe which housed a kitchen and offices. The first floor held the Crimson Drawing Room, sanctuary and library.

Cemetery and grounds

Gateway and Beckfords Tower near Lansdown (geograph 3831784)

From Beckford's house in Lansdown Crescent to the tower, a series of interlinked gardens were laid out which became known as Beckford's Ride. Nearest the crescent was a terraced Italianate garden and then a plantation of conifers. Above the plantation was a quarry garden and dyke garden; a grotto tunnel under a track led into the tower garden. Specialist planting included ''Pinus arborea'', Royal Fern (''

Osmunda regalis ''Osmunda regalis'', or royal fern, is a species of deciduous fern, native to Europe, Africa and Asia, growing in woodland bogs and on the banks of streams. The species is sometimes known as flowering fern due to the appearance of its fertile fr ...

'') and ''Cistus alpina'', in order to encourage bird species including nightingales,

linnets The common linnet (''Linaria cannabina'') is a small passerine bird of the finch family, Fringillidae. It derives its common name and the scientific name, ''Linaria'', from its fondness for hemp seeds and flax seeds—flax being the Englis ...

and

thrushes The thrushes are a passerine bird family, Turdidae, with a worldwide distribution. The family was once much larger before biologists reclassified the former subfamily Saxicolinae, which includes the chats and European robins, as Old World flycat ...

. The old quarry was made into a walled garden with fruit and vegetables. Henry Goodridge designed a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

entrance gateway to the grounds. Bronze railings were later added which had surrounded Beckford's original tomb in Bath Abbey Cemetery. The railings were removed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and replaced in 2000. The gardens were surrounded by stone walls around high. William Beckford's tomb at Beckfords Tower 04

Part of the grounds were donated to the local parish after Beckford's death and consecrated as a cemetery in 1848. It became known as Lansdown Cemetery and burial plots were laid out in a grid pattern. It was extended in 1947 and again in 1961. In addition to Beckford's tomb, the cemetery is also the burial site for several notable people from Bath, including Henry Goodridge, Field Marshall

William Rowan Field Marshal Sir William Shearman Rowan,England, Select Marriages, 1538–1973 (18 June 1789 – 26 September 1879) was a British Army officer. He served in the Peninsular War and then the Hundred Days, fighting at the Battle of Waterloo and t ...

, the Holburne family who founded the

Holburne Museum The Holburne Museum (formerly known as the Holburne of Menstrie Museum and the Holburne Museum of Art) is located in Sydney Pleasure Gardens, Bath, Somerset, England. The city's first public art gallery, the Grade I listed building, is home to ...

, Anne (the wife of

Sir Richard Bickerton, 2nd Baronet Admiral Sir Richard Hussey Bickerton, 2nd Baronet, KCB, (11 October 1759 – 9 February 1832) was a British naval officer. He was born in Southampton, the son of Vice-admiral Sir Richard Bickerton and first served aboard HMS ''Medway'' in ...

) and the feminist writer

Sarah Grand Sarah Grand (10 June 1854 – 12 May 1943) was an English feminist writer active from 1873 to 1922. Her work revolved around the New Woman ideal. Early life and influences Sarah Grand was born Frances Elizabeth Bellenden Clarke in Roseba ...

. The cemetery closed in 1992 and since then has been maintained by the local council and the Lansdown Cemetery Trust.

Museum

The tower is home to a museum displaying furniture originally made for the tower, alongside paintings, prints and objects illustrating William Beckford's life as a writer, collector and patron of the arts. Visitors can climb the spiral staircase to the restored belvedere below the lantern and experience panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

Beckford's Tower and Museum

Beckford's Tower on Flickr
* {{EHbarName, Beckford's+Tower Grade I listed buildings in Bath, Somerset Grade I listed towers Landmark Trust properties in England Museums in Bath, Somerset Art museums and galleries in Somerset Decorative arts museums in England Towers completed in 1827 Towers in Somerset Folly towers in England Monuments and memorials in Somerset Observation towers in the United Kingdom Grade II listed parks and gardens in Somerset Redundant churches Cemeteries in Bath, Somerset 1827 establishments in England Beckford family