Elton House overlooks Abbey Green, right in the centre of Bath. It was given to us, with much desirable furniture, by Miss Philippa Savery, a gallant campaigner for the city’s preservation. The earliest part of it dates from just before 1700, but it was subsequently enlarged and refronted by Elizabeth and Jacob Elton, when they purchased the lease from the Duke of Kingston.By 1750, it had become a handsome robust building on several floors, with a fine staircase and excellent joinery, arranged as sets of lodgings to accommodate the affluent Georgians who flocked annually to Bath.

Thereafter the fashionable world moved up the hill, away from Abbey Green; part of the ground floor became a shop and the rest of the house stayed as it was. It is therefore something of a rarity, even for Bath, telling of a more humdrum and provincial side of the city, that existed alongside the formal grandeur of the Woods but has now largely disappeared.

In 1946 Miss Savery, looking for somewhere to sell antiques from, came upon it in neglected but unaltered condition: home to twelve different tenants and with a cobbler’s shop on the ground floor. Miss Savery patiently bought up the leases until she was mistress of the whole house, now functioning again as one. The garden she created at the back of the house is a particular source of pleasure; as is the view of green fields above Bath, still to be enjoyed from the windows at its front.

View our history sheet for this Landmark.

Sleeps: 10