How we started...

Our history involves two of the most famous and important names in Bath's history; The Pulteneys (of Great Pulteney Street fame); and William Beckford (a famous traveller, diarist, author, collector, developer, son of a prominent MP, and builder of the famous Beckford's Tower - who was forced into exile under the shadow of sex scandal); and one of the City's most renowned architects, Henry Edmund Goodridge.

The Curfew was built in the 1820s and is on land, which formed part of William Pulteney's estate. It was designed by Goodridge - builder of Beckford's tower, and the nearby Cleveland Bridge. The original deeds to the property were signed by William Beckford in his Lansdown Crescent home, suggesting that he played an active rôle in the development of Cleveland Place, and the Curfew.

The building started life as a bookshop, but by 1837 it was John Snook's Wine & Spirit Merchants. The Edwards family took over until the early 1930s, and the building remained a wine merchants until 1956, when it was granted a full licence. It was known as The Quadrant Wine & Spirit Merchants until the late 1960s, when it became The Curfew.

So, although as a pub we are a relative new in Bath terms, our wood-panelled interior and different floor levels in a warren of rooms gives a cosy and comfortable feeling usually the reserve of older establishments.