As Bath increased in size during the 18th and 19th centuries, so did Widcombe. Late Georgian villas and terraces were built to accommodate the families of the middle classes and retired officers who flocked to the area with their domestic servants.
Between 1801 and 1841 Widcombe’s population trebled from just under 3,000 to just over 9,000. Lyncombe Hill, Caroline Buildings, Widcombe Hill, Crescent and Terrace, Prior Park Buildings and many others all date from the early 1800s.
It was a different story along Holloway, the old road to Glastonbury, and in the Dolemeads which were prone to flooding. Poor quality housing sprang up for the low-paid and unemployed. Breweries, pubs, off-licences and ale-houses were everywhere and the crowded courts and alleys of Holloway were notorious for drunkenness and crime. For the destitute there was the Parish Poor House and the Paupers’ Burial Ground. In the first half of the 20th century great changes were made in the Dolemeads and again in the 1970s when Holloway was redeveloped.
The 19th century also brought commerce, industry, travel and employment to Widcombe. This meant the Kennet and Avon Canal in 1810, Brunel’s Great Western Railway in 1841 and the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway in 1874 (running through Lyncombe Vale and axed in 1966).
The Religious Revival brought the subsequent Baptist Church with its landmark roof in 1820; St Mark’s in 1832; St Matthew’s in 1847 and in the same year, the Temperance Hall. The Abbey Cemetery was opened in 1844. During this Victorian era, schools were founded (railway arch No 14 housed the first infant school in1855) and church halls were built. When Widcombe was incorporated into the city in 1836 it got its own police station in another railway arch.
Gas lighting arrived in 1836, electricity in 1889 and water, supplied by Bath Corporation, in 1903.
One of Bath’s oddities was the 4-acre ‘Little Zoo’ at the top of Lyncombe Hill. Established in 1907, it had disappeared by 1911.
More information: Early history; famous residents; local history pamphlets.
