Thomas Malton, Pulteney Bridge,
1785
Another structure built during Bath’s building boom of the
1700s, Pulteney Bridge is one of Bath’s more unusual features. It
is one of very few bridges in Europe to have shops on it. Bridges
with buildings on were common in Middle Ages, for example, the
Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy, but by the
18th Century most were being pulled down.
In 1769 a rich local landowner, William Pulteney, employed the
architect Robert Adam to build the bridge to link to his lands on
the other side of the river. The design of the bridge was based on
the style of the Italian architect, Palladio, whose work was very
fashionable in Georgian Britain.