The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa

The hotel occupies Nos. 15 and 16 at the centre of John Wood the Younger's Royal Crescent, the Palladian terrace of thirty houses completed in 1775 and now part of Bath's UNESCO World Heritage Site. A guesthouse opened at No. 16 in 1950, No. 15 followed, and the interiors were restored in 1978 before the grounds were extended. Behind the facade sits something the street never suggests: an acre of private gardens with a walled garden, the Garden Villa, Montagu's Mews Restaurant & Bar and The Spa & Bath House. The hotel holds two Michelin Keys and three AA Rosettes.

For private events the rooms are Georgian and small in number. The Library, lined with books around a carved fireplace, suits a champagne reception or a single long dinner table. The Sheridan and the Sir Percy Blakeney Suite each seat thirty, the Sheridan opening onto its own stone courtyard, and Montagu's Mews takes seventy seated for a reception dinner. Outside, the walled Wedding Garden has an iron pergola under honeysuckle and roses, and the Croquet Lawn takes a marquee for the largest seated dinner the hotel offers.

The real occasion here is the whole house. Exclusive use gives a party all 45 rooms and suites, the restaurant and bar, the spa and the gardens from three in the afternoon until noon the next day, and the marquee on the lawn is offered on those terms. It is a country house party held a short walk from the centre of Bath.