WE ARE ALL GROWN UP NOW

We’re gonna celebrate

It’s a year to remember – but can you identify it? Emma Clegg goes back in time to when Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Prize, wedge flipflops were in, and Bath City were beaten by Yeovil Town

Can you guess the month and year? Michael Schumacher won the season ending the Japanese F1 Grand Prix for his record 11th victory of the year. England opened their Euro 2004 qualifying series with a 2–1 win over Slovakia in Bratislava, with David Beckham and Michael Owen scoring. Former cricketer Imran Khan was elected to the Pakistani Parliament after winning the seat of Mianwali-I. The European Union annou nced ten new m embers, including Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Cyprus. President George Bush argued for action against Iraq in a national address, outlining the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. North Korea admitted to developing nuclear arms in defiance of an international treaty. Former United States President Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here are some other clues. Givenchy for Homme colog ne was launched along with G low by JLo. Robbie Williams signed a new six-album deal with EMI for £80 million, the most lucrative contract ever signed by a UK musician. Britain was buffeted by 100mph winds in the worst gales since 1987, itself the most severe storm in 200 years. British Digital terrestrial television (DTT) service Freeview began transmitting in parts of the UK, and London Weekend Television closed

f orever.

Closer to home Bath City’s worst fears of an opportunity missed came at the end of

October at Huish Park as they were beaten by three goals to one by Yeovil Town in their FA Cup 4th qualifying replay. Oh yes, and the people of Bath read the first issue of The Bath Magazine.

It was October 2002. So take yourself back and imagine listening on your MP3 Player – the first iPod with Windows compat ibility and a touch-sensitive wheel –to the strains of Complicated by Avril Lavigne, There by the Grace of God by Manic Street Preachers, or Dilemma by Nelly with Kelly Rowland (“No matter what I do, all I think about is you”), all top ten singles that month, with Dilemma becoming one of the bestselling singles of all time.

Rewind 18 years as you peruse recently published books such as The Lovely Bones by Al ice Sebold, The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, Sahara by Michael Palin and Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson. Visualise calling a friend with your Nokia 6610 – a top-selling mobile phone that year with downloadable polyphonic and monophonic ringtones and Xpress-on covers – as you take a sip of your Coca-Cola Vanilla, perhaps suggesting to them a shopping trip to find the latest velour tracksuit with matching zip ho ody and some statement platform flipflops. Or maybe a visit to the cinema to see Ken Loach’s Sweet Sixteen with a (very fresh-faced) Martin Compston (Line of Duty as yet undreamed of) as a teenager with a troubled background; Red Dragon, with Anthony Hopkins reprising his role as Dr Hannibal Lecter; or Possession, the mystery drama based on AS Byatt’s novel starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart, the latt er showing at the Bath Film Festival.

On the tech front, the new Apple wonder was the iMac G4 with a thin flat panel display floating upon a cantilevered, fully

poseable metal arm and a hemispherical base, cramming a full computer, drives, and power supply under a 10.6-inch diameter dome. It even incorporated a small, quiet fan that sucked in cooling air from the bottom. A range of Bluetooth earpieces w ere launched from Jabra, Motorola, Nokia Plantronics and Sony Ericsson, allowing those who invested to walk around like secret service agents. PC games saw the arrival of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, with fantastic vistas and a depth of content still remembered as astounding, and the issue an absolute classic. The Sims Unleashed had also launched that year, allowing Sims families to introduce pets and an expanded neighbourhood with parks, pet stores and markets to explore. Woo-hoo!

On TV, depending on your tastes, you may have been following Foyle’s War, Footballers’ Wives, The Forsyte Saga (with Damian Lewis, Gina McKee and Rupert Graves), or The Osbournes (with the Osbournes), which all launched that year. There was also a TV movie documentary in October charting the rise, fall and rise again of DJ Tony Bl ackburn who had been announced as the first-ever winner of I'm A Celebrity in the previous month.

If you were young and on the fashion pulse with a crotch-skimming corset and low-slung jeans with no back pockets, you may not have seen Liza Goddard in the sellout tour of Alan Bennett’s Single Spies at Theatre Royal Bath – silk cargo pants and a pashmina scarf may have been more likely.

ABOVE: Dilemmaand The Life of Pi

LEFT, from left: the iMac G4 with its cantilevered metal arm; the Nokia 6610 mobile phone; and the 2002 MP3 Player, with its touch-sensitive wheel

OPPOSITE RIGHT: Sweet Sixteen with Martin Compston; and The Forsyte Saga with Damian Lewis, Rupert Graves and Gina McKee

OPPOSITE FAR RIGHT, from top: Christian Dior by John Galliano Spring Summer 2002 printed corset; C hristian Di or by John Galliano jeans Autumn Winter 2002; Pointed Pump 2002, Gucci by Tom Ford

This production was followed by Richard Briers as Prospero in The Tempest before it appeared in the West End (think sequinned top for her and Rockport boots and a dress shirt for him). Another theatrical option was Heretic at the Rondo where a woman fills a tank with tears to repent for her misdemeanours (opt for an olive green fatigue jacket, beret, and a T-shirt with a red star in homage to Che Guevara).

The Bath Magazine readers could also buy tickets for The Mozart Festival taking place the following month, with performances at the Abbey, Assembly Rooms and the Guildhall, and listen to a concert by pianist Rolf Hind at the Michael Tippett Centre at Bath Spa University College. In dramatic contrast, Houdini the Musical was soon to show at the Kingswood Thea tre in Lansdown performed by the Bath Operatic and Dramatic Society. There was also the opportunity to book for the year’s pantomime, Robin Hood and Babes in the Wood, with the always-there-at-Christmas Jon Monie as a wily robber.

On the arts scene you might have been preparing for a weekend trip to the V&A’s major retrospective of the work of fashion designer Gianni Versace, which featured the most compreh ensive collection of originals ever exhibited from the Versace archives, or to Spotlight on Euan Uglow at The Hayward Gallery, which then toured to The Black Swan Guild in Frome in 2003. At the Holburne was the exhibition Treasures from the West of England, with works of art from 50 private collections, and at Victoria Art Gallery was Ben Hartley – a retrospective, showing the work of the post war painter wh o had died two years before. Another highlight was the work of Philip Davies on show at Six Chapel Row Gallery, with his painting Aperitifforever memorialised on The Bath Magazine’s first front cover.

October provided plenty of fun for families during half term including the Wacky Festival of Theatre at Theatre Royal

with a concluding orchestral performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolfand SaintSaen’s Carnival of the Animals. There was also glassmaking for children at Bath Aqua Theatre of Glass and some spooky stories told in Prior Park Landscape Garden for Halloween.

Many congratulations to those businesses who appeared in our first issue and are still going strong today, including Rossiters, Mandarin Stone, Cooper’s Electrical, Yum Yum Thai, The Francis Hotel, Las Iguanas, Aquaesulis Dental Practice in Lower Weston, Dr Philip Pettemerides’ dental practice in George Street and Juice Recruitment. Also Savills, whose property offering that month included a fivebedroom semi-detached Regency town house in Macaulay Buildings, Widcombe for £775,000 – properties in this area are now valued around the £1,500,000 mark.

The editorial in the first 32-page issue was eclectic, including a piece on collecting tea c addies by Duncan Chilcott of Bonhams Bath, and one on the ancient art of fencing by Reginald Channon of the Bath Sword Club, which met every Thursday evening at Kingswood School. There was also a history of crime and punishment in Bath by Kirsten Elliott, uncovering some dark shadows in the city’s history, and a health and beauty review of a Detox for the Skin treatment at The Health and Beauty Centre in Queen Street.

The Tramshed regeneration project on Walcot Street was reviewed, a building that once housed the city’s trams and a site where Roman mosaics were discovered before the development started. The shell of the red-brick building was left intact, while the interior was ‘scooped out’ in a major engineering feat. The central atrium was framed by a series of lofty red brick arches, creating an aquadu ct effect in subtle homage to the site’s Roman heritage. The finished development included residential accommodation, retail space, a large restaurant (now Neptune store) and craft workshops, hoped to be a new vibrant work hub for independent crafts practitioners.

In the intervening years our magazine has changed in character, design, content and pagination, but the common denominator is that it has always striven to be relevant, informative and thought-provoking. We hold that thought always.

So, 214 issues later, it’s now our 18th birthday and we’re celebrating each and every year. Cat’s eye, the stone for an 18th anniversary, is a gemstone polished into a cabochon that displays a narrow band of concentrated light going across the width of the stone. This effect is known as chatoyancy, or cat's eye effect. We feel the cat’s eye phenomenon sums up our role in Bath – we aim to light the way, look forward (as well as checking in the back mirror), give focus, make connections and take our city readers on a noteworthy ride. We hope you’ll continue the journey with us. Meanwhile turn the page for a summary of those 18 years... n THEBATHMAG.CO.UK | january 2010 THEBATHMAG.CO.UK | OCTOber 2020

Eighteen years of The Bath Magazine

2002

• Loraine Morgan Brinkhurst becomes Mayor of Bath. • The Queen and Prince

Philip come to Bath in May as part of their visit to the west country for a tour of the Roman Baths, the

Pump Room, the Guildhall and the Abbey. • The first issue of The Bath

Magazine is published.

2003

• The Three Tenors sing at a concert in Royal Victoria

Park in August to mark the opening of the Thermae

Bath Spa, although the spa didn’t open for another three years. • 2003-2004 – Bath Rugby tops the Zürich

Premiership (now the

Aviva Premiership).

2004

• Bath’s architecture is used as the scenic backdrop of the film of Thackeray's

Vanity Fair. • The 10th Bath Literature

Festival takes place on dates in February and

March.

2005

• Bath Spa University gains full university status in

March, becoming the second university in the city. • The Egg theatre opens in

October. • Michael Tippett and

William Glock direct their final Bath International

Music Festival.

2006

• The Thermae Bath Spa opens in August. The project received £7.78 million of Lottery funding, but the final cost far exceeded this. • Plans for a new £21 million Student Village at the University of Bath are approved.

2007

• Milsom Place opens in

February – the shopping area was previously called

Shire’s Yard. • The first Bath Festival of

Children’s Literature launches in September. • The old Southgate shopping centre is demolished. • Work starts to pump the 18th-century stone mines used to build the city of Bath full of concrete to stop them collapsing.

2008

• Bath is used as a location for the film The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley. • The Beau Street Hoard is discovered on the site of what was to be the

Gainsborough Hotel and

Thermal Spa. • 104 decorated pigs are displayed around the city in a public art event. • Komedia opens in

November. • Bath Rugby wins the

European Challenge Cup.

2009

• Bath bus station opens in June, after two years of work. • The first phase of So uthGate shopping centre opens. • Woolworths in Moorland Road closes when the national chain goes bust.

The store had been on Moorland Road since 1956. • The Bath Magazineis one of the UK’s first city magazines to adopt a digital

‘flippable read’ for free on the zmags platform.

2010

• Bath City gains promotion to the

Conference Premier. • 100 lion sculptures are displayed all over the city and are then auctioned. • The Abbey’s Footprint project launches, to repair the historic floor, create new spaces, install a new heating system, and create a Discovery Centre. • Theatre Royal Bath is closed for refurbishment. • Our website: thebathmagazine.co.uk is launched.

2011

• Construction of the Bath

Western Riverside residential development on the former Stothert & Pitt crane factory site begins. • The University of Bath is named University of the

Year by The Sunday Times. • The Holburne Museum’s new extension opens. • The city population recorded by the census is 88,859.

2012

• The Olympic Torch comes through Bath carried by

Eleanore Regan, who is pregnant, just hours before her due date. • The Bath Riverside project’s landscaped riverside area is completed. • The Theatre Royal Bath announces its first summer season.

2013

• Plans are revealed by Bath

Rugby for a new stadium, to provide a world-class arena. • The floor of the 500-yearold abbey building is collapsing, and huge voids are discovered beneath where graves have settled. • The Destructor

Bridge in Midland Road closes in April for regeneration work.

2014

• Primark opens in Bath. • Bath’s world famous

Moles nightclub goes up in flames on a Saturday morning in March. • Jolly’s department store has a £4 million refurbishment. • The Museum of East

Asian Art celebrates 20 years since its opening and undertakes its first oral history project.

2015

• Don Foster announces he is stepping down as MP for Bath ahead of the 2015 General Election after 23 years. • Ben Howlett becomes

Bath’s MP. • The Gainsborough Bath

Spa opens in September, the first and only hotel in the UK to offer its visitors access to natural thermal waters.

2016

• A 400-tonne replacement

Destructor Bridge is installed at the third attempt in

August, opening to pedestrians in December. • Hundreds of homes are evacuated in the Lansdown area of Bath in May, after an unexploded WW2 bomb is discovered during redevelopment work at the former Royal High Junior

School. • In April, archaeologists begin digging up two hidden

Roman baths which had never been fully excavated and recorded underneath York

Street and Swallow Street.

2017

• Wera Hobhouse becomes Bath’s MP. • The East Baths area of the Roman Baths, adjacent to the famous

Great Bath, are updated in early 2017, with new interactive displays. • The city of Bath World

Heritage Site turns 30. • The Archway Project receives Lottery funding to deliver a World

Heritage Centre for

Bath. • The Royal Crescent celebrates its 250th anniversary.

2018

• Following on from the pigs and the lions,

Minerva's Owls arrive in

Bath, with profits donated to charities including the new RUH

Cancer Centre and the

Roman Baths Archway

Project. • The Bath Half Marathon is cancelled due to freezing conditions. • A blue plaque dedicated to Mary Shelley, author of

Frankenstein, is unveiled by Sir Christopher

Frayling – it was first proposed in 1973!

2019

• The online Community

Radio Station BA1 Radio launches. • The Royal National

Ho spital of Rheumatic

Diseases, known as The

Min, closes, with the

RNHRD moving to a new location at the Royal

United Hospital. • The Bath Festival celebrates 70 years. • Elizabeth Park at Bath

Riverside opens in July. • Bath and North East

Somerset Council offers discounted parking permits in the city centre for zero emissions vehicles.

2020

• The city plans to introduce a Clean Air

Zone by the end of the year. • Covid-19 and lockdown hits the city and The Bath

Magazinedocuments the haunting, silent streets with a film. • Our summertime edition was a special moment of publishing. Over 30 of the city’s brightest minds helped us to document the effect the pandemic had on life in Bath and ways we might rethink the future.