It's alive!

First of all, I want a word with you lot. Stop using the old cliche 'Answers on a postcard, please' whenever you are trying to drum-up a few more comments in your already over-subscribed comments section unless you really want a postcard, in which case include your postal address with the item. Right. Can we get on now? (Answers on a postcard, please).

Not all of Bath is Georgian. Take the row of houses in Orange Grove, in the shadow of the Abbey. They are 17th century, but have been renovated and improved so much over the last 300 years that most people walk past them unaware but for a sneaking feeling that they look a little out of place in this town. It is a 'Grandmother's Axe' situation. The Abbey was once hemmed in by buildings like this (after the dissolution of the monastery) but they were all demolished to uncover more of the Roman Baths. One of them - overlooking the Great Bath - was where Mary Shelley wrote the best part of 'Frankenstein'. What is the best part, I hear you ask? Answers on a postcard, please.

Here's another 1600s building, but not so heavily restored. This grand 17th century frontage is now the rear wall of Jolly's Department store. All the windows have had their stonework replaced, but you can tell how old it is from the whitish stones of the main wall.

This stone is a white lias quarried about 15 miles out of Bath and was widely used up until Ralph Allen promoted the use of Bath Stone from his own quarries, fair-faced and cut into ashlar sizes.

I am thinking of conducting an alternative walking tour of Bath which would include sites like this. There are already walking tours themed for Jane Austen (yawn), Frankenstein and the Shelleys, etc. but this could be different. I could also go to places where famous buildings once stood (the original Pump Rooms, for instance), but I think I would probably spend a lot of time pointing at 1960s supermarkets, saying '...and here there was the famous...'. Do you think it would be boring? Answers in the comments section, please.