Beckford'S Tower With Attached Wall And Railings

Beckford's Tower is a belvedere or prospect tower built in 1825–27 by the architect Henry Edmund Goodridge for William Beckford. Standing 154 feet high, it is constructed of limestone ashlar with slate roofs and a cast iron lantern. The tower has a square plan with an octagonal lantern, and a rectangular base with a projecting range to the left.

The tower is crowned by a gold ball and fretted cast iron finial on an octagonal pavilion roof with acroteria to the angles, cornice, and a frieze of three circles to each facet. This is supported by eight fluted columns fronting a panelled lantern—a free adaptation of the Athenian Choragic monument of Lysicrates. The eight-sided parapet features a richly moulded cornice and plinth with pierced vertical slots to panels: three slots to front, back and sides, longer five-slot panels between, and large crown-like urns to angles.

The square tower below has a cornice and blocking course with roundels to large blocks over quoins, a key pattern panelled frieze over another dentil cornice, and stepped frieze. Three deep flat arched recesses to each side contain plate glass semicircular arched windows with gold studs to diagonal half-grilles and deep cornice with mutules over simple cornice and stepped frieze. The main shaft of the tower is plain with raised lintels on blocks and raised sills to three slit windows to the right of each floor.

The entrance to the two-storey former mortuary chapel to the left is approached by a flight of seven steps between low thick coped walls that turn to front a platform spanning the facade. A triple arcade with thick impost bands forms a wide veranda over a semicircular arch to the central recessed porch with groin vaulted ceiling. Semicircular arched vertical panelled doors to each side are at right angles to similar double doors with studs to frames and semicircular fanlight. The outer arches of the arcade have balustrades of pierced vertical panels and moulded platband above.

To the first floor are three narrow semicircular arched windows with diagonal lead glazing and H-shaped sills. A tall parapet with moulded plinth has three similar balustraded panels to those of the arcade over the windows, and encircles the block. To the right of the left return stepped forward range, above the parapet, is a classical-style triumphal arch almost three metres high, probably a former bellcote, below a double recessed panel. Three semicircular arched first floor windows have diagonal leaded glazing and H-shaped sills. The rear is similar with four irregularly placed semicircular arched windows to each floor and half-glazed double doors to the right.

Projecting from the rear of the tower, in the angle, is a single storey quadrant plan bay with acroteria to a tall parapet with deep double recessed semicircular arched panels over a moulded platband. A low service wing to the left, now a separate dwelling, is set forward with similar parapet and no windows to the front except a moulded semicircular arch over a basement window. The five-window left return has raised lintels and sills to 20th-century windows, paired to the outer ranges.

The cast ironwork was restored by Dorothea Restorations of Bristol in 1997. A ring of iron acanthus leaves around the rim of the roof had been removed in 1931 during restoration. Moulds were made from a single survivor in 1997 and new castings made of the scroll-shaped ornaments between the eight roof panels. Regilding with gold leaf was carried out, the ironwork having been treated with epoxy-resin paint.

The former Scarlet Drawing Room was converted to a chapel serving the cemetery in 1848. This was restored and altered in 1934 following a fire in 1931 which destroyed much of Beckford's internal decoration. The 1970 restoration of the belvedere repaired the ceiling frieze and decorative spandrels. The 1997 restoration undertaken for the Bath Preservation Trust included restoring the ceiling coffered within rings of egg and dart moulding. The walls and ceiling have been painted in the 1844 colour scheme. The eight buff worsted damask curtains lined with scarlet serge bordered with silk lace have been re-created, along with the x-framed stools.

The coping of the parapet fronting the entrance platform continues along a rubblestone wall approximately 1.5 metres high that projects forward from the right hand corner for approximately 20 metres. Above it, plinths with double recessed panels articulate six lengths of cast iron diagonal trellised railings approximately three metres long; a similar panel fronts the right hand end of the platform.

William Beckford moved to Bath in 1822 and began building the tower (from which he could see Fonthill, his previous house) and laying out the surrounding grounds almost immediately. Designed by the young Henry Goodridge in an innovative fusion of Picturesque asymmetry and precise Neo-classicism, it has been called 'a key monument in the development of British Neo-classicism'; 'its style, setting, and the circumstances of its construction defy any suggestion that Neo-Classicism can be separated from Romanticism in any meaningful way'. The tower enabled Beckford to indulge his fondness for Olympian overviews of the local scene and to take in the tower's magnificent prospects. It was also used as a treasury for some of Beckford's collections.

Just before Beckford's death in 1844, the tower's interiors were recorded in a series of paintings by Willes Maddox. Following his death, the landlord of the Freemasons Arms on Abbey Green bought the building for £1,000 and proposed to turn the grounds into a beer-garden. To prevent this it was re-purchased by the Duchess of Hamilton (Beckford's daughter) who presented it to the Rector of Walcot for use as a cemetery and chapel. This new use commenced in 1848 and Beckford's tomb was moved from the Abbey Cemetery to where he had wanted to be buried, which had previously been impossible because it was not consecrated ground. The tower's scarlet drawing room was converted to mortuary chapel at that time.

In 1841 Beckford sold a number of the tower's furniture and pictures and it may well have been at this time that the mantelpiece of Sienna marble with copper inlay was purchased by the owner of No. 10 The Circus and removed from the Crimson Drawing Room. The tower was restored in 1900 but in 1918 its condition was described as 'piteous', and again in 1934 after a fire in 1931 which caused much damage to Beckford's interiors.

The tower was still owned by the Parish of Walcot, which increasingly regarded the tower as an irrelevant burden: it was sold to a private purchaser in 1972 for £5,000 and work began on the conservation of the tower. The lower building was adapted for use as a private residence known as Beckford House, with an inserted first floor within the former chapel space. A charitable trust was established in 1977 to maintain and open the building, and this was merged into the Bath Preservation Trust in 1993. The tower was comprehensively restored in 1999–2000 and opened as a museum with attached accommodation managed by the Landmark Trust.