Lansdown is a
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separat ...
of the
World Heritage City of
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
Pla ...
, England, that extends northwards from the city centre up a road of the same name. Among its most distinctive architectural features are
Lansdown Crescent and
Sion Hill Place,
which includes a campus of
Bath Spa University
Bath Spa University is a public university in Bath, England, with its main campus at Newton Park, about west of the centre of the city. The university has other campuses in the city of Bath, and one at Corsham Court in Wiltshire.
The institu ...
.
Beckford's Tower, an architectural folly built in neo-classical style 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 ...
in 1827, stands on high ground at the northern edge of the suburb, overlooking Lansdown Cemetery.
Lansdown Hill
Lansdown Road climbs north-west through the suburb and continues into open land in
Charlcombe
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 ...
parish, past a park-and-ride facility and playing fields to the Lansdown Hill area. Here (outside the city boundary) are Lansdown hamlet,
Bath Racecourse, and Lansdown Golf Course.
The
Battle of Lansdowne (1643) was fought in the vicinity and is commemorated by
Sir Bevil Grenville's Monument (1720) on Lansdown Hill.
Cricket club
Lansdown Cricket Club, founded in 1825 and the oldest club in Somerset, originally played at a ground called "Cricket Down" next to the original racecourse on the top of Lansdown Hill and close to Beckford's Tower (the current
Bath Racecourse is about a mile to the west); later the club moved into Bath at the Sydenham Field, and when that was built over by the
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It a ...
in 1869 it moved to its current ground adjacent to the
Royal United Hospital
The Royal United Hospital (RUH) is a major acute-care hospital in the Weston suburb of Bath, England, which lies approximately west of the city centre. The hospital has 565 beds and occupies a site. It is the area's major accident and emergency ...
at Combe Park, which is in
Lower Weston.
See also
*
Lansdowne (disambiguation)
References
Areas of Bath, Somerset
Electoral wards in Bath and North East Somerset
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