Southgate Hotel

A Memory of Bath.

My Great Great Grandparents were William and Elizabeth Pratt.
In the 1880s William and his family had lived and worked on the Longleat Estate, William was the Head Gardener at that time.
In 1891 they moved to Bath, and sadly William died there in 1892, and on his death certificate it stated that he died at 24 Southgate Street.
Further sadness followed when son Arthur Reginald also died, he was only 14.
Thanks to the Bath Post Office Directories of 1895 I was able to establish that the address was the Southgate Hotel and the Proprietor is stated as William's wife Elizabeth.
The Southgate Hotel can be seen on photo ref 52994 on the right hand side looking up Southgate Street, the first building is the public house The Full Moon, then Dorchester St intersects, the next building is no 26, in 1895 was named Bright William & Son Chemist ,followed by no 25 The Refreshment Rooms, and next door is no 24, Southgate Hotel. The hotel is identifiable if one looks closely, it juts out slightly after the the long building that housed nos 25-26, it's also taller than the buildings either side, the windows are of a shape that gave the hotel a lot of character.
So the Pratt family had contributed their bit to the now long gone Southgate St, by providing a roof over the heads of those who chose to stay at The Southgate Hotel, and have left me with a story to tell my family and a photo for them to see.