Five-star One MICHELIN Key City centre, Bath
The Gainsborough Bath Spa
A Victorian hospital on Beau Street turned into 99 rooms, with the city's hot spring piped into the spa pools and, in a few rooms, into the bath.
Opens the hotel's own website. We have no arrangement with the hotel.
- MICHELIN
- One Key
- Rooms
- 99 rooms and suites
- Opened
- July 2015
- From the airport
- About 45 minutes from Bristol, our estimate
The hotel
A hospital over the springs.
The hotel joins five Grade II listed buildings in the centre of Bath, among them John Pinch's United Hospital from the nineteenth century. Later it housed Bath College of Art & Design, which left in 2005. Below lie the remains of a Roman bath, and a replica mosaic in the spa recalls the floor found there. A fourteen-bedroom annexe is reached by an underground link.
YTL Hotels opened The Gainsborough on 1 July 2015. The architects EPR handled the conversion, and Champalimaud Design of New York did the interiors, recasting Georgian and Victorian rooms in brighter colours. What sets it apart is the water: the hotel is the only one in Bath drawing on the thermal spring. A two-storey glass atrium covers the pools, and in three rooms the spring water runs from a tap in the bathroom.
- The Bath House Three thermal baths under a two-storey glass atrium, with saunas, a steam room and an ice alcove, open to residents early in the morning and in the evening.
- Spring water in your bath Bath Spa rooms and the Bath Spa Suite have a second tap that runs natural thermal water into an alcove roll-top tub.
- In the old city The Roman Baths, the Abbey and Bath Spa station are all within walking distance of Beau Street.
Rooms & suites
Georgian rooms, thermal taps.
Rooms are custom furnished by Champalimaud Design, with two-poster beds in the Deluxe rooms and views over the city or Bellotts Courtyard.
- Thermal rooms Bath Spa Room An alcove roll-top bathtub with natural thermal water on tap. Not suited to guests with limited mobility.
- Corner suite Gainsborough Suite A king-size bed, a large lounge and views from the corner of the building.
- A house of your own The Townhouse A Georgian townhouse on four floors with three bedrooms, a kitchen and a patio, sleeping up to five, with use of the hotel.
Dining
Dinner on Beau Street.
Restaurant and bar as listed by the hotel. Shown for information.
- The Gainsborough Restaurant Restaurant Listed in the MICHELIN Guide
- Gainsborough Bar Cocktails A signature cocktail from 4 to 6 pm
- Afternoon tea Tea Served in the hotel
Recognition
Awards and listings.
- One MICHELIN Key Current selection
Good to know
Before you go.
- Arrival Check-in from 3 pm, check-out by 11 am.
- The spa Guests must be sixteen or over. Residents use the Bath House free from 8 to 10 am and 7 to 9 pm; in between it is kept for treatment guests.
- Pets Not accepted.
Getting there
Flying to Bath.
Bristol Airport, nineteen miles away, is about forty-five minutes by car by our estimate and takes business jets through its handling agent. Heathrow is about an hour and a half along the M4, also our estimate, and trains from London Paddington reach Bath Spa in about eighty minutes.
- Dublin 45 min
- Paris 55 min
- Edinburgh 1 h 00
- Geneva 1 h 30
- New York 7 h 25 long-range jet
Questions
What guests ask first.
- How many MICHELIN Keys does The Gainsborough Bath Spa have?
- One. The MICHELIN Guide lists the hotel with one Key.
- Can children use the spa at The Gainsborough?
- No. Spa Village Bath is for guests aged sixteen and over.
- Do any rooms have thermal water?
- Yes. The Bath Spa rooms and the Bath Spa Suite have natural thermal water on tap in the bathroom.
- Can SkyCourtage arrange the flight to Bath?
- Yes. We arrange Business and First Class seats on scheduled airlines and private jet charter to Bath, with one final price, our margin included. The hotel is booked with the hotel or through our booking partner.
Also in Bath
Other hotels worth the trip.
- Lucknam Park A country house in some 500 acres of park, with a spa, riding and Hywel Jones's starred restaurant; three MICHELIN Keys.
- The Newt in Somerset Three MICHELIN Keys: a seventeenth-century mansion among gardens, orchards, lakes and working farmland.
- The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa Two MICHELIN Keys and 45 rooms on the Crescent, with an acre of secluded garden behind and a spa in a Georgian bath house.
- Whatley Manor Hotel and Spa Two MICHELIN Keys, and home to The Dining Room with its MICHELIN star.
- The Bath Priory Two joined Georgian houses with 33 bedrooms, formal gardens, an outdoor pool and a L'Occitane spa; one MICHELIN Key.
- The Queensberry Hotel Four Georgian townhouses with the starred Olive Tree in the basement; one MICHELIN Key.
- Homewood A Georgian country house with an indoor-outdoor spa and the restaurant Olio; one MICHELIN Key.
- The Yard, Bath An eighteenth-century coaching inn dressed in fabrics by local designers; one MICHELIN Key.
Staying at The Gainsborough Bath Spa?
Book the room, then the flight.
Rates and availability come from the hotel itself. For the journey to Bath, a Business or First Class seat or an aircraft of your own: tell us the date and we come back with one final price, our margin included.
Opens the hotel's own website. We have no arrangement with the hotel.