OPP Day 4: No. 1 Royal Crescent
Another day spent with the amazing Bath Preservation Trust! This time, our group made our way to the Royal Crescent. The Royal Crescent is a row of 32 Georgian era townhomes arranged in a crescent shape around a large green area. Many are still used as private residences, with a portion used as an exclusive hotel (we were told Kylie Monogue was staying while we were in town), and another portion serves as a museum— No. 1. Royal Crescent.
The museum occupies the space that was once the home of wealthy landowner, Mr. Henry Sandford. The house was at one time remolded and served as a boarding school for girls. However, in the 1960s the space was purchased and largely converted back to what it looked like as Sandford’s home. Today, the museum offers visitors a chance to explore a typical Georgian townhouse, complete with furnished rooms and dining room tables set with the most amazing looking fake food I’ve ever seen. The kitchen is incredible, with a carefully designed soundtrack to make it feel like a working Georgian kitchen.
Our task for the day was to work in groups and explore the museum. Then we were to develop a plan for the holiday season including an exhibit plan with proposed visitor footpath and ideas of what they’d see in each room through the route, as well as a listing of possible routine activities and special events for the month.
It was quite a task, but so much fun! No. 1 Royal Crescent has done such an impressive job at outfitting the servants’ quarters and kitchens, and that really inspired our group to think beyond the aristocracy storyline that is presented through much of the house. Instead, we decided to focus on what it might have been like for the servants of the townhouse during the holiday season working at this townhouse. We came up with a character, Georgina. As the visitors followed the path through the museum, they would enter each room and see the rooms being prepared for the annual Christmas feast, with decorations, food, textiles, etc. Each room progressed you further through the hours of the day (beginning in the early morning). In each room, you’d find Georgina with an explanation of what she was doing at that particular time of day— setting the tables for Christmas dinner? Bringinging in more fresh greenery for decorations in the hall? Helping the lady of the house with her gown and one of her many wigs? At the end of the day, you ended in the servants hall where you got to see how Georgina and the rest of the servants would have celebrated Christmas, with their own music, dancing, food, and decorations. Our exhibit incorporated dress up opportunities (the museum has a chest full of costumes for visitors!), opportunities to try out making traditional Georgian holiday paper crafts and events around traditional dances and cooking lessons in the holiday spirit. We had an unlimited budget for this activity, so we also had some ideas about incorporating VR headsets so visitors could see scenes with live actors as they moved through the house.
Winner winner, prosecco dinner!
Unlimited budget at a heritage site. Hah. Haaaaaah. It was fun to dream though…
Obviously planning a full exhibit on this scale involves months if not years of detailed work and working against often tiny budgets, but we sure had a lot of fun brainstorming ideas. I’m pretty proud of our idea, though, and our group even won first place In our little exhibit competition. Hoorah!