Bath Shops
Trevor Fawcett
The retail shops and the abundantly supplied
provisions market ranked among the major conveniences
of Georgian
Bath. Like any other town it had its butchers, bakers and even
candlestick makers, and a fair share too of pawnbrokers, street
traders, and cheap chandlers' shops. What set it apart was its trade in
luxury commodities, hardly surpassed outside London itself. Countless
temptations assailed the well-to-do and fashionable as they strolled
about the spa - from gorgeous silks, laced coats and modish bonnets to
the mouthwatering displays in the confectioners' windows and all the
glitter of the celebrated toyshops
which more and more resembled
showcases of British manufacturing skills.
Further reading
- Trevor Fawcett, Bath Commercialis'd: Shops, Trades and Market at the 18th-Century Spa (Ruton 2002)
- Trevor Fawcett, 'Eighteenth-century shops and the luxury trade', Bath History vol. 3 (1990).
