Cross Pulteney Bridge from the city centre and you reach Bathwick, a quieter Georgian neighbourhood built around Great Pulteney Street, Sydney Gardens and the Holburne Museum. It's an easy add-on to a day in central Bath rather than a separate trip, since it starts the moment you walk over the bridge.
Crossing the bridge into Bathwick
Pulteney Bridge itself, lined with shops on both sides, is one of only four bridges in the world built this way, and it's worth pausing on for the view over Pulteney Weir before you carry on. Once you're across, the pace changes almost immediately. Bathwick was a small separate village until the late 18th century, when it was developed into the elegant streets you see today, and it still feels like a slower part of the city than the shopping streets around the Abbey. See our guide to Pulteney Bridge and the weir for more on the crossing itself.
Great Pulteney Street and the Georgian streets
Great Pulteney Street runs dead straight from the bridge into Bathwick and is one of the widest and longest Georgian streets in Britain, lined with the same honey-coloured stone terraces found around the Circus and Royal Crescent. Laura Place and Sydney Place, just off it, are part of the same development and worth a look if you enjoy the city's Georgian architecture; our guide to the Circus and Royal Crescent covers the other side of that story in the city centre.
Sydney Gardens
At the end of Great Pulteney Street, Sydney Gardens is the only surviving 18th-century pleasure garden of its kind left in the country, first opened to the public in 1795. It's a genuinely pleasant place to sit or walk, with far fewer visitors than the Royal Victoria Park on the other side of the city.
Holburne Museum and Jane Austen's house
The Holburne Museum, Bath's first public art gallery, sits right at the entrance to Sydney Gardens and is built around the collection of Sir William Holburne. A few doors along at 4 Sydney Place is the house where Jane Austen and her family lived between 1801 and 1804, said to be where she began writing Northanger Abbey while looking out over the gardens below.
Getting around Bathwick
Bathwick is entirely walkable from the city centre, five to ten minutes over Pulteney Bridge to Great Pulteney Street, and it's flat, unlike the hillier neighbourhoods south of the river such as Combe Down. The Kennet and Avon Canal also runs along the edge of the area, giving you a level towpath walk if you want to keep going rather than double back into town.
Where Bathwick fits into a visit
Bathwick works well as an hour or two added onto a day exploring the centre, rather than a full day trip on its own. A reasonable order is Pulteney Bridge, then Great Pulteney Street, then the Holburne Museum and Sydney Gardens, finishing with a stroll along the canal towpath if you have time left. It's also one of the more sought-after residential areas in Bath, so if you're looking at where to stay, a Bathwick address puts you close to the centre without being in the middle of the busiest tourist streets.
Practical tips
Most of Bathwick's streets are residential permit parking, so if you're driving, it's easier to park more centrally and walk across the bridge; see our Bath parking guide for options. The Holburne Museum and Sydney Gardens both keep normal daytime hours, so plan to visit earlier in the day rather than in the evening.