Sweeping down the stairs

Several recent oral history interviewees and former students at Newton Park have mentioned the Main House staircase.

Main House staircase (photograph K. James, 2013)

It appears today much as it did when the house was built in the mid 18th century. Architect Stiff Leadbetter included this grand sweep of pretty wrought iron, set beneath a central dome. The dome gives the first floor landing a bright and airy feel, showing off the cantilevered staircase as it descends to the ground floor below.

First floor landing and Principal's room, c 1950 (from Miss Dawson's collection)

In the 1760s, when the house was new, guests of Joseph Langton will have paraded up these stairs, and in a circuit around the principal rooms through the connecting doors. As they did so, Mr Langton's fine collection of furniture, paintings, silver and porcelain, the best which the nation's manufactories could produce, were on display for all to see and envy. In pride of place, either side of the drawing room doors, hung a pair of full length portraits, of Joseph and his wife, painted by the famous Mr Gainsborough, Bath society's favourite artist, then resident in the fashionably bustling city.

We have to imagine all of this however, since none of these things remain. During the Second World War, the valuable objects in the house were transferred to a storage warehouse in Milsom Street, Bath, for safety. Ironically, it was completely destroyed in the Bath Blitz of April 1942. The remaining contents were sold around the time of the Estate sale shortly afterwards.

When students moved into Newton Park, they were not permitted to use the stairs, despite several being in residence in a room just beside it. They had to use the back stairs, except on one day a year. (from the memoir by Joyce Day, student 1948-1950)

Students on the stairs, c 1950. As the college was then women only, the men had to be 'imported ' for the evening

On the day of the annual ball, dressed in their finery, they were permitted to sweep down the stairs. Sheila (1949-1951) recalls being in awe of the grandeur of it all, and particularly enjoyed parading down the stairs in a 'turquoise satin gown, off the shoulder, quite daring for those days.'

Wrought iron and cantilevering (photograph K James 2012)

Today, staff pass up and down the Main House staircase throughout the day. Is it just a route to an office, or do they too imagine a glamourous and glittering past?