ABSTRACT
In histories of building and architecture in eighteenth-century Bath it has sometimes been the practice to raise questions about the social significance or meaning of Bath. The Act of 1707, which established a system of turnpike roads into Bath and provided for the lighting and cleansing of the town, and which has been singled out by earlier historians of Bath as a positive act by the Corporation in response to the initiative of its alleged appointee Beau Nash, seems to have been a tardy and reluctant response to initiatives by others. Once the Corporation had committed itself to development there was no end to the devastation of corporate property it would carry out in order to enrich itself, its members, and the development-minded citizens of Bath.
