The Holburne Museum in Great Pulteney Street, Bath.



Pulteney Bridge and the weir.



This is Pulteney Bridge in Bath, the beautiful structure based on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence.  The bridge is lined with shops, and when passing over, you are not aware of the River Avon flowing underneath.  The bridge appears as an ordinary street and linked the wealthy area of Bath around the Abbey, to the less desirable parts of the outer  city.  The River Avon floods in winter, and at times the weir  completely disappears from view.  Today the river was placid, but it can become a ferocious torrent.

Today I visited an exhibition of Thomas Gainsborough's landscape paintings in the Holburne Art Museum.  This beautiful building was originally designed as an hotel standing in Sydney Gardens.   When Jane Austen lived just across the road in Sydney Place in the early 1800s, she regularly walked in the gardens.  The paintings of English landscapes were wonderful, and alongside the pictures were the preliminary sketches in various mediums, chalk, ink and pencil, that Gainsborough had used to compose his paintings. 

Below, the photo shows the new glass extension added to the back of the building.  There was much desention about the building of this modern, glass structure.   Many thought that it did not fit in with the building heritage of Bath.  It is now completed,  I think it fits in well and is hidden from view from Great Pulteney Street.  It now provides a cafe on the ground floor, and two extra galleries for the display of china, miniatures and glassware.  In the lowest photo, Jo waits for me at the main entrance.  We had a most enjoyable visit and wander around the busy city.

The Holburne Art Museum.

The new glass extension added to the back of the museum.

Jo waits for me at the Museum entrance.