Although there is very much a medieval Bath (which I will delve into later), it really is a Georgian city. The Georgian period is one of my favourites, so I loved being able to get lost in the past. All of Bath does a fantastic job at embracing their past, and preserving it for visitors to come. One piece of the past that pops up in a few places around Bath is the Georgian sedan chair, one of the more stylish and comfortable ways to get from point a to point b!
Sedan chairs were a common mode of transportation in eighteenth century Bath. If you had enough money, you could afford for people to carry you in a box so that you didn’t have to waste energy walking places yourself! It also would have saved horses the work of short distances, but it was most certainly used as a status symbol.
This particular replica Georgian sedan chair sits outside the museum at Number 1 Royal Crescent! As I learned on my walking tour of Bath, Georgian houses in Bath were designed with fairly wide doors. This was so your sedan chair could actually be brought right up to your home so that you wouldn’t have to actually ever truly be outside.
This sedan chair can be found at the Assembly Rooms in Bath (also home to the Fashion Museum). It would have most likely been in private use, rather than rented by the public. This is decorated in the German/Austrian style (though I’m curious how it ended up in Bath), and brought people directly to the Assembly Rooms for some dancing á la Jane Austen. Although sedan chairs did go out of fashion in favour of wheeled bath chairs, I can see the appeal of having someone carry you everywhere in style! Never having to worry about the weather? Yes, please.
Would you be willing to travel in a Georgian sedan chair?
Cheers,
The Historian
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I have never even heard of sedan chairs! The replica in your photos looks quite heavy – do you know how many people it would take to carry one? I must say, I certainly see the appeal of them – as you say, no need to worry about the weather!