Empire Hotel, Bath

Empire Hotel
From the south showing Pulteney Bridge
LocationOrange Grove, Bath, Somerset, BA2 4DF
Coordinates51°22′56″N 2°21′28″W / 51.38222°N 2.35778°W / 51.38222; -2.35778
Built1901
Built forAlfred Holland
ArchitectMajor C E Davis
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameEmpire Hotel
Designated17 July 1989[1]
Reference no.1394205
Empire Hotel, Bath is located in Somerset
Empire Hotel, Bath
Location of Empire Hotel in Somerset

The Empire is a former hotel in Bath, Somerset, England, built in 1901 and designated as a Grade II listed building.[1] It is situated on Orange Grove, close to both Bath Abbey and Pulteney Bridge and adjacent to the Old Police Station.

Hotel frontage

It was designed by the Bath City Architect Major Charles Edward Davis for the hotelier Alfred Holland and built from Bath Stone,[1] on the site of the Athenaeum. It was described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as a ‘monstrosity and an unbelievable piece of pompous architecture’.[2]

The building occupies a large L-shaped block. It is six storeys high plus the octagonal corner tower. The front of the building onto Orange Grove has eight bays and the side overlooking the River Avon has nine bays.[1]

The architecture of the roof shows the three classes of people, a castle on the corner for upper class, a house for the middle classes and a cottage for the lower classes.[2]

During World War II it was used by the Admiralty as a postal sorting office and remained in their possession until the 1990s.[3] In 1996 it was then refurbished and became apartments and a restaurant.[4][5]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Empire Hotel, Bath.
  1. ^ a b c d "Empire Hotel". Images of England. English Heritage. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Heritage Impact Assessment Garfunkel's Restaurant, The Empire, Bath" (PDF). Planning Heritage Ltd. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
  3. ^ "Empire Hotel". Bath Heritage. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  4. ^ "The Empire Hotel in Bath". Madison Oakley. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  5. ^ Elgee, Emma; Ellis, Scott (27 October 2022). "Bath's The Empire residents 'shocked' over repair bill for historic vaults". BBC News. Retrieved 27 October 2022.