This building is the last in a series of pump rooms on the site, built to establish and promote Hotwells as a spa. Hot, and supposedly healing waters bubbled up from the springs below and into the 'Hydropathic Institution' above. The building was transformed into a cinema in 1922, and then a ballroom in 1928. It is closed to the public but can be accessed on Bristol Open Doors Days.
In 1804, an ailing Mary Tighe - an Anglo-Irish poet - came to Bristol under the suggestion of her husband Henry, to enjoy the benefits of the spa. Mary was sceptical of the effectiveness of the waters and, living in Clifton as an invalid, soon became disenchanted with life there. To appease her boredom, she sought out literary acquaintances. Ann Yearsley, Mary was disappointed to learn, had left Hotwells a year earlier. She did, however, meet Hannah More but was put off by More's seeming hautiness.
Lying awake at night, Tighe heard and was inspired by the 'watchful melody' of the nightingale coming from the near by woods of St. Vincent's Rock. The disppearance of the nightingale in the autumn provides the opening for 'Stanzas written at the Hotwells of Bristol'. As with many of Tighe's verses, the poem presents the often confusing relationship between dreams and reality. It also featured a tailpiece illustration of a view of the Avon which helps situate the verse in the physical environs. The illustrations also demonstrate Tighe's keen engagement with the picturesque and her participation in the verbal-visual print culture of views, tours, sketches, and guides of the time.
