Royal Crescent is a residential development in Bath, UK, consisting of 30 houses built in the shape of a crescent moon. The complex was designed by architect John Wood the Younger and built between 1767 and 1774. В Bath was in its heyday at this time: it was becoming fashionable for aristocratic people to go on holiday on the water. It was becoming fashionable for aristocrats to go on holiday on the water, and for the summer Bath was becoming the centre of social life in of British social life. Naturally, many new buildings were being constructed in the city, and and it's at this time that the Georgian masterpieces for which Bath is famous.
At first the complex was called simply The Crescent, the epithet "Royal" being added in the late eighteenth century, when houses 1 and 16 were occupied by Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.
John Wood designed only the facade of this complex, adorned with Ionic columns. Future homeowners bought their own section of the frontage and hired their own architect to construct the building. The result was a unique structure - with a single façade, the back side of the houses is a haphazard mixture a haphazard mix of buildings of different layouts and roofs of different heights. "Royal façade and cooks' backyards" - that's what this style is called in Bath.
John Wood Jr, like his father John Wood Sr, was interested in occult and Masonic symbols. Some find these symbols in their buildings as well. The Royal Crescent and the nearby Circle are three arc-curved buildings, and a circular square in the middle, by John Wood Sr. - symbolise the moon and the sun, and the Circle with adjoining Gay Street and Queens Square in plan form a key - also one of the Masonic symbols.
These houses have been home to famous people at various times: Marie-Louise de Lamballe, maid of honour to Queen Marie Antoinette, Prince Frederick Duke of York and Albany, poet and playwright Richard Sheridan. IThe Blue Stockings Society was born here, as Lady Elizabeth Montague's salon was called.
Now in the house number 1 is a museum, and houses number 15 and 16 are combined, and there is a hotel.
