The Plane Trees of the Circus

The Circus is three curved terraces of Grade I listed townhouses arranged into a full circle, John Wood the Elder's answer to the Colosseum and one of the defining images of Georgian Bath. For its first decades the ring at the centre was paved stone setts sitting over a reservoir that supplied the surrounding houses with water. In 1800 the residents enclosed that centre as a private garden, grassed it over, and planted five London Planes, reportedly to cut down on the dust that horse-drawn carriages kicked up on the surrounding road. Those five trees, believed to date to around 1820, have since grown enormous, their canopies now higher than the roofline of the houses they were planted to shield, and they have become inseparable enough from the Circus's identity that Bath and North East Somerset Council names them as one of the features contributing to the whole ensemble's Grade I listing. Stand in the centre of the green today and the five trunks, the curving stone facades and the sky framed between them make one of the most photographed views in a city that has no shortage of them.