Fairfield House, in Newbridge,

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 ...

, England is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It was the residence of

Haile Selassie I Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or ''Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles#Lij, Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, Rege ...

Emperor of Ethiopia The emperor of Ethiopia (, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse (, "emperor"), was the hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century until the abolition of the monarchy in 1975. The emperor w ...

, during the five years they spent in England (1936–41). Following his return to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, he donated it to the city of Bath in 1958 as a residence for the aged. The

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

two-storey house was built around 1850, probably by James Wilson, on Kelston Road in the northwest outskirts of the city. The house has significance to the UK

Rastafari movement Rastafari is an Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of the movement and much ...

because it was bought in 1936 by Haile Selassie I after the death of the previous owner Mrs Campbell-White, following a short stay at the Bath Spa Hotel, while the house was renovated. He lived in the house with his family and staff for five years. The renovation provided a large double drawing room with two fireplaces, and a dining room with pantry. The rooms for Haile Selassie to meet contacts and supporters included a 'telephone room' or small office and the morning room. There were five principal bedrooms with rooms in the attic for servants. There are numerous accounts of "Haile Selassie I was my next door neighbour" amongst people who were children in the Bath area during his residence. In 1943 it was used as a home for babies evacuated from

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, ...

. Haile Selassie gave the house to the City of Bath in 1958 during the visit when he was given the Freedom of the City. Fairfield House was used as a care home until 1993, when new room size requirements made it unsuitable for such use. Since then it has been used as a day centre by a number of groups including the Bath Ethnic Minority Senior Citizens' Association, Age Concern, the Ethiopian Coptic Church and a Rastafari church. In 2014 a community group, Friends of Fairfield House, were negotiating a Community Asset Transfer in order to preserve and develop the house. In 2019 a

Community Interest Company A community interest company (CIC, pronounced "see-eye-see", or colloquially, "kick") is a form of social enterprise in the United Kingdom intended "for people wishing to establish businesses which trade with a social purpose..., or to carry on ...

was established to support the running of the house as a community asset.

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External links

* {{coord, 51.3902, -2.3998, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Grade II listed buildings in Bath, Somerset Royal residences in England Grade II listed houses in Somerset Haile Selassie Country houses in Somerset Italianate architecture in England