Bath's hidden tourist attraction: Beckford's Tower

Far from the madding crowds that congregate at the ever-popular Roman baths, Beckford's Tower offers a more tranquil experience of historic Bath
Beckford's Tower, Bath
Spectacular views await at the top of the curving steps of Beckford's Tower. Public Domain

The historic city of Bath features on all but the briefest of UK tourist itineraries, its numerous heavy-hitting attractions engulfed by visitors on a daily basis. But two miles from the city centre, atop Lansdown Hill and away from the ever-popular Roman baths and grand abbey, one unsung attraction stands peaceful and contemplative, offering an experience altogether different from the crowded sights below.

This is Beckford's Tower, an Italianate square tower topped by an Athenian octagonal lantern, which was built in 1826 by William Thomas Beckford. Arriving here is like entering another, simpler, world: visitor numbers rarely exceed a handful at a time up here and I have the building, and its enthusiastic volunteers, all to myself.

Jane Glaser, who is on duty today, tells me that most visitors come for the views from the tower's summit. I am keen to find out why and on reaching the top discover a panorama which is certainly expansive, covering a vast swath of mostly unspoilt countryside from south Wales in the west to Salisbury in the east. Jane says that "when it's clear it's fantastic" but unfortunately I have chosen a day of soupy skies and so must make do with sights closer to hand. Fortunately these include Bath's racecourse, the highest in England, and of course the honey-hued city laid out below me in the valley punctuated by its beautiful abbey tower and numerous spiky church spires.

I return somewhat dizzy-headed down the curving cantilevered steps (154 of them, I am told) and find Annette Godbold, another volunteer, keen to explain the other reason people come to visit this little-known tower: the fascinating, and at times scandalous, life of William Thomas Beckford. Annette tells me that he was a "most cultivated and interesting man" who built this tower as what she charmingly describes as his "garden shed", a place to tinker with his collection, read his books and spend time alone with his thoughts.

William certainly had a lot of thoughts, interested as he was in everything from literature and art to politics and history. A master of multiple languages and the writer of Arabian tale Vathek, William's wide-ranging interests and thirst for knowledge led him to collect items ranging from furniture and books to objets d'art and paintings (many of which are so important they now reside in the National Gallery).

The tower's first floor is home to a museum telling the history of this extraordinary life. Here I learn that William's grandfather made the family fortune in the sugar plantations of Jamaica and that when William inherited this substantial estate at the tender age of 10 he became, by popular belief at least, the richest man in Europe. His mother not allowing him to go to school, he became a solitary man and later was accused of having a homosexual affair with a distant cousin and murdering his wife, Margaret.

As with so much of history, conjecture and gossip play an all too active role, and we can now merely imagine the details of his privileged and prodigal life; but we can visit his "garden shed" to speculate at leisure – and take in a view he termed "the finest prospect in Europe".