Beckford's Tower and tomb, Bath
Image ID
FOT902990
Rights
RM Rights Managed
Image Details
2.2 MB
JPEG
2500×1750px
212×148mm
8.3×5.8in
Visual Size @300ppi
Description
Beckford's Tower, originally known as Lansdown Tower, is an architectural folly built in neo-classical style on Lansdown Hill, just outside Bath, Somerset, England. Standing 120 feet (37 m) high, the tower was completed in 1827 for local resident William Beckford to a design by Henry Goodridge. Beckford used the tower as both a library and a retreat, located at the end of pleasure gardens called Beckford's Ride which ran from his house in Lansdown Crescent up to the Tower at the top of Lansdown Hill; he made it his habit to ride up to the tower, view the progress of gardens and works, and walk down to breakfast. Beckford's own choice of the best of works of art, virtu, books and prints and rich furnishings from Fonthill Abbey, which he had sold in 1822, were rehoused in his double adjoining houses in Bath and at the Tower. One long narrow room there was fitted out as an "Oratory", where all the paintings were of devotional subjects and a marble Virgin and Child was bathed in light from a hidden skylight. The most striking feature of the tower is the topmost gilded lantern, based on the peripteral temple at Tivoli and the Tower of the Winds at Athens, reached by a spiral staircase and offering excellent views over the surrounding countryside, but not open to the public. The surrounding Victorian Cemetery, containing William Beckford’s tomb, a pink granite sarcophagus which stands on an oval- shaped mound lined by a stone wall and surrounded by a ditch, was in his lifetime part of a beau
Uploader
Derek Adams
Contributor
Derek Adams
Date Taken
2007-07-22
Uploaded On
2011-10-04
Sub Category
Follies
Setting
Outdoor
Point Of View
Above camera
People
Without people
Dominant Colour
#D0E0E0