page_title: Bath Assembly Rooms
section_title: Current use
hierarchical_section_title: Bath Assembly Rooms / Current use
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the Octagon Room at the Bath Assembly Rooms
context_page_description: The Bath Assembly Rooms, designed by John Wood the Younger in 1769, are a set of assembly rooms located in the heart of the World Heritage City of Bath in England which are now open to the public as a visitor attraction. They are designated as a Grade I listed building.
  During the Georgian era Bath became fashionable, and the architects John Wood, the Elder, and his son laid out new areas of housing for residents and visitors. Assembly rooms had been built early in the 18th century, but a new venue for balls, concerts and gambling was envisaged in the area between Queen Square, The Circus and the Royal Crescent. Robert Adam submitted a proposal that was rejected as too expensive. John Wood, the Younger raised funding through a tontine, and construction started in 1769. The new or upper assembly rooms opened with a grand ball in 1771 and became the hub of fashionable society, being frequented by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, along with the nobility of the time.
  The building, made of Bath stone, is arranged in a U shape.
context_section_description: Today the rooms are owned by the National Trust and operated by Bath and North East Somerset Council. The main rooms are still available for hire for private functions. They are also used for concerts, including ones that are part of the Bath International Music Festival.
  The basement of the building provides a home to the Fashion Museum, which was known before 2007 as the Museum of Costume. The collection was started by Doris Langley Moore, who gave her collection to the city of Bath in 1963. It focuses on fashionable dress for men, women and children from the late 16th century to the present day and has more than 30,000 objects. The earliest pieces are embroidered shirts and gloves from about 1600.
  The grandeur of the building make it a popular location for feature films and television series set in the Georgian period. The BBC have used it as a location for the filming of an adaptation of Northanger Abbey in 1986 and in 1995 Persuasion.
caption: The Octagon Room, with a central chandelier
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