Grand Pump Room, Bath

The Grand Pump Room has been an intricate part of the Bath social scene since it opened. The current building opened in 1795, built upon an early building's foundations from the early 1700s. Famous visitors have included Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

The Grand Pump Room is currently the entrance to the Roman Baths and features the Grand Pump Room Restaurant. It's a great place to take the waters and to dine in the opulent surroundings one would expect for such an affair.

The Grand Pump Room was a prime setting in some of Austen's novels. In Northanger Abbey, it is here that Catherine Morland makes her first forays into Bath society. In one passage of the novel, Catherine Morland found the crowd in the Pump Room insupportable. In another, she eagerly checked for Henry Tilney's name in the visitor's book and was disappointed not to find it. Visitors would sign in, and this book was a useful tool to track the comings and goings of acquaintances. In Persuasion, Admiral Croft comes to Bath to take the waters as a cure for his gout.