Now you can live a Bath life like Jane Austen, but with cable TV and superfast Wi-Fi. Founders House sits grandly in a quiet cul-de-sac in the old orchards of Bath Abbey. Packed with period charm, it sits snugly shadowed by the abbey and the Roman Spa. From the top floor, the abbey’s spires rise monumentally into view.
Founders House, built in 1744 by the city founders, sits within the warm heart and the bubbling waters of beautiful Bath. It’s a gorgeous base dressed to the nines with panelled walls, high ceilings, walnut staircase, and exposed beams. Sleeping ten in five bedrooms, it’s a hidden gem for families and hens within the regal crown of the city.
Right out of the door, you can bathe in Bath’s beauty. You’re two minutes from the Royal Parade Gardens, one minute from the shopping district, and seconds from Bath Abbey and the Roman Spa. Park two minutes away at Southgate or Manvers Street and come home to a toasty fire and a homely heart.
Living spaces at Founders House mimic the city: grand and gorgeous. You can’t move for thick, swashing curtains, deep carpets, Queen Anne legs, brass table lamps, and chunky coffee tables. This is a Jane-Austen world of panelled walls, high ceilings, and exposed bricks and beams – yet one deftly edited with modern touches.
Pile into the panelled living room: there’s space enough for everyone to sprawl on the L-shaped sofa and catch a match or a movie on the 42” cable TV. Bring your devices and tap into the BT Wi-Fi, or spin some vinyl on the record player in the parlour, or just escape there with a book or your Bluetooth headphones.
Be together, be apart: there’s space here across five floors to be as sociable or as shy as the mood takes you. Envelop yourself in throws and scatter cushions, sprawl on the giant sofa, pop a cork or two and celebrate what matters in life: fun, friendship, and family. Oh, and living like minor aristocracy in one of Bath’s premier townhouses.
The Aga’s nice and toasty, the champagne’s chilling, the mood’s building nicely, so pop out to Avellino’s deli for pasta, cannoli and aragostine, Parma ham, Italian meats and cheeses, buratta, and panzerotti cookies with hazelnut cream. Helping you along are the fan oven and microwave. When you’re done, just pop the pots in the dishwasher.
The kitchen’s a cook’s haven and an open-plan sociable space, a cheery place of chopping and chatting. It comes fully equipped, right down to the salt, pepper, and oil. Eat around the chunky oak table beneath the exposed beams and the chandelier in the cosy warmth of the Aga.
Prefer to put your feet up with a Prosecco? When you call up our chefs, you call the shots. Choose from a one-off celebration or a fully catered break. Get your posh pub grub from The Huntsman, enjoy hearty pub classics at the King William, or head to the Marlborough Tavern for high-quality home cooking and a charming patio garden.
Get your fill of rice, veggies and noodles at Salathai, try Sally Lunn’s, home of the original Bath ‘bun’, help yourself to Mosala Dosa or gin-drizzled prawns at Mantra Progressive Indian, or tuck into the tasting menu of English, Indian and Asian flavours at Menu Gordon Jones. Watch out for the test tubes.
Founders House sleeps ten in five sumptuously serene bedrooms, an oasis of fresh white bedding, fluffy towels, and new mattresses and pillows. Sleep deeply and dream among the original panelling and period fireplaces.
Scrub up in four lovely bathrooms: an en-suite with shower on the first floor, two bathrooms with bathtub and shower on the second floor, and a toilet on the ground floor.
On the first floor, bedrooms one and two each offer two single beds, as does bedroom three on the second floor. Up on the third, where views of the city get progressively better, you’ll find two dreamy doubles. For guestfests, extra beds can be made up in the parlour or other bedrooms. Just ask.