Famous Bath Residents

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens, one of the greatest authors of Victorian Britain, was a regular visitor to Bath and often stayed in number 35 St James’ Square. This house features a plaque stating Charles Dickens as a regular resident. Bath features in some of Dickens’ books, namely The Pickwick Papers. Charles Dickens would also do public readings in the Assembly Rooms, which is now a fashion museum.

Jane Austen

Jane Austen, one of England’s most famous authors, lived in Bath during her self-confessed ‘darkest days’ when her father died unexpectedly. Her parents were married in St Swithin’s Church in Walcot Street and her father was later buried there. You can still see his tomb in the grounds of the church. 

Bath served as a setting for Austen’s books Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. There is a permanent exhibition to the author at the Jane Austen Centre on Gay Street, with a public tea room.

The Jane Austen festival takes place every September and you will often see people in period costume dress walking around the city.

Manolo Blahnik

The world-renowned shoe designer Manolo Blahnik also lives in Bath and is currently undertaking restoration of the 18th century townhouses on one of Bath’s famous crescents.

Mary Shelley

Bath saw the arrival of Mary Shelley in 1816 in the same month she finished writing the world Famous Frankenstein.

William Herschel

In 1781, William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus from his back garden in Bathwick. His house is marked today with a plaque commemorating the discovery.

William Pitt the Elder

William Pitt, British Prime Minister (1766 to 1768) lived in the Circus, Bath, which is now home to the likes of Hollywood actor Nicholas Cage and British actor John Cleese.

Ghosts and ghouls of Bath

In such an ancient Roman city, you will inevitably get ghosts! Tom Bradshaw, an award-winning journalist, writes about a number of buildings in Bath with eerie associations in his book Bath, a pocket miscellany. 

The ghost of the Royal Crescent is rumoured to be that of Richard Brinsley, a Georgian playwright who eloped on a horse drawn cart with Elizabeth Linley.

The ghost of a little girl with blonde hair has also been seen by paranormal experts in Sally Lunn’s tearoom in 2007.