The Rotunda, Cheltenham

This is the Montpelier Rotunda and Pump Room building, now the local bank I blipped the interior of three weeks ago.

Paul Lapalmyre mentioned it looked like the Pantheon in Rome when he saw the interior and, sure enough, it turns out it was modelled on the Pantheon and its proportions are almost the same. This building was the pump room with reading room and billiard room. The murals of country scenes and hunting have been lost. Waters were pumped from 80 surrounding wells. How fabulous to be of a class to live in a beautiful nearby building, to pop in for a game of billiards and to take the waters. Before I get too romantic I need to remember that the odds are I would have been “downstairs” blacking the grates!