
Built between 1826 and 1827 for William Beckford (1760-1844), Beckford’s Tower is a unique building and a key landmark for the City of Bath. It once housed one of the greatest collections of art, furniture and books in Georgian England. However, behind its beauty lies a more brutal story.
The Tower is a product of the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved African people. Beckford’s ability to build, and to collect, was made possible by a vast fortune built on the profits of sugar plantations in Jamaica and the stolen labour of thousands of enslaved Africans. This wealth gave Beckford a life of privilege, and enabled him to collect and commission unique and influential artworks by some of Europe’s greatest artists and makers. It also gave him power over the lives of others. Understanding the source of Beckford’s wealth, and what it enabled him to do, is essential to exploring the books he wrote, the collection he put together and the buildings he created.
William Beckford
Born in 1760, William Beckford was the only legitimate child of the powerful politician, Alderman William Beckford (1709-1770). Beckford’s mother, Maria Marsh (1724/5-1798), was the granddaughter of the 6th Earl of Abercorn and a member of the prestigious Hamilton family. In 1770, when Beckford was just ten years of age, his father died and he inherited the immense fortune generated by the family’s sugar plantations and the enslaved people they claimed as property in Jamaica.
Extremely intelligent and well educated, as a young man Beckford developed a passion for collecting and although not yet in full control of his fortune, (as he was under 21), he still had access to the huge sums of money. The collection continued to grow while Beckford travelled on his Grand Tour of Europe, a trip that wealthy young men from Britain undertook and which offered a level of freedom away from parents, guardians or the overseeing gaze of society.
Beckford had relationships with both men and women. When he married Lady Margaret Gordon in 1783, he was already involved with William Courtenay of Powderham Castle in Devon. As Beckford was 19 years old and Courtenay only 11 when they first met in 1779, it was an abusive relationship. Beckford could be controlling and manipulative and his wealth again put him a position of power over Courtenay. The relationship was exposed in 1784 and forced Beckford into exile. At that time, this was not due to its abusive nature, but rather because they were both male.
Beckford fled to Europe with Margaret in 1785, where she died after the birth of their second child. His children returned to England to be cared for by family members and would never share a home with their father again. After Margaret’s death, Beckford only had relationships with men. Sex between men was illegal in Britain and the threat of imprisonment and execution kept Beckford in exile. In 1787 he met Gregorio Franchi, who worked for him as a designer, and with whom Beckford had a long-term relationship.
Beckford eventually returned to Britain in 1796 and built Fonthill Abbey in Wiltshire, filling it with an extensive art collection. In 1822 he moved to Bath, and four years later he built this Tower. Beckford died in Bath in 1844 at the age of 83.


The Beckford Family and the transatlantic slave trade
Through marriage and ruthless ambition over four generations, the Beckford family became one of the most powerful on the island of Jamaica. Their vast fortune was built on the profits of sugar plantations, directly created through the stolen labour of thousands of enslaved Africans.
William Beckford’s father, Alderman William Beckford, used the family’s wealth to rise through British politics, and was twice Lord Mayor of London. He presented himself as a hero of liberty for British citizens, whilst people on his plantations in Jamaica were trafficked and forced into slavery, stripped of their dignity, traditions, familial ties and African names, and given the surname Beckford. When he died in 1770 a competition was run to design a statue commemorating Alderman Beckford, which stands today in the London Guildhall. Alderman Beckford used his political power to influence decisions that benefited British colonial rule in the West Indies. In May 1770, he made a speech to King George III in which he stood up for the civic liberties of British citizens. At the time, Alderman Beckford held 1,356 people in enslavement on Jamaica. Learn more about Alderman Beckford’s statue and how it is presented and perceived today.
Tacky’s War
In 1760, enslaved people on Alderman Beckford’s Esher plantation joined fellow freedom fighters in the influential uprising known as Tacky’s Revolt. Strategically planned, but frequently overlooked by military history, this was a key conflict in the Seven Years War. Tacky’s Revolt inspired many other rebellions and uprisings on the island as enslaved people fought for their freedom.
Tacky’s War is the basis for the Young Adult novel Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle. It has recently been the inspiration behind a dance and music project between State of Trust and Beckford’s Tower, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Unlike his father, William Beckford never visited Jamaica; despite never visiting his family’s plantation, he was strongly opposed to the abolition of slavery. The Slavery Abolition Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1833 and two years later Beckford claimed £12,803 (about £1.3 million today) in compensation. This was the ‘value’ of the lives and the labour of 1,860 enslaved people. Beckford used this wealth to commission new furniture and to collect more objects. In 1840, the Anti-Slavery Society held a convention in London to commemorate the abolition of slavery. One of the main speakers was Henry Beckford, a free man born into slavery on a Beckford plantation.
The surname Beckford carries a heavy legacy, as explained by Professor Robert Beckford. New research is currently underway to identify people held in enslavement on Beckford plantations, and understand their history, legacy and impact today. This work will contribute to the continuing development of what and whose stories are told at the Tower, and who tells them.


The Tower
Beckford moved to Bath in 1822, renting a house in Great Pulteney Street before moving into No.20 Lansdown Crescent. He soon began buying and renting the land behind Lansdown, and over 19 years created a mile-long landscape garden, at the top of which he had architect Henry Edmund Goodridge (1797-1864) build Lansdown Tower (1826-7). Within Beckford’s own lifetime it soon became known as Beckford’s Tower.
The landscape leading up to the Tower was filled with buildings, plants and trees, carefully designed by Beckford and Goodridge to create a journey through nature and architecture. At the end of this was the Tower, Beckford’s personal retreat filled with items from his collection, including paintings, newly commissioned furniture and decorative art objects that were at the forefront of taste and design ideas in England. It was an intensely private world where Beckford could escape the City of Bath. It was all paid for from the vast profits he gained through his ownership of sugar plantations in Jamaica and the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved African people.
In 1835 following the abolition of slavery Beckford received a compensation payment of £12,803 (nearly £1.3 million today), the ‘value’ of the lives of 1,860 enslaved people. He immediately acquired the neighbouring property at 19 Lansdown Crescent and embarked upon a further period of commissioning new furniture and interiors for his home and the Tower.
When Beckford died in 1844 the Tower was stripped of all its contents and, with its immediate garden, sold to a Bath publican. The rest of the landscape was broken up into parts and soon built upon. Beckford’s daughter Susan, the Duchess of Hamilton, was distressed to discover that her father’s retreat was being used as a beer garden, and she promptly bought it back. In 1848 she gave it to Walcot Parish (St Swithin’s Church) The Tower became a funeral chapel and the garden became Lansdown Cemetery.
A fire in 1931 badly damaged the building, and extensive repairs removed a lot of the original timber from the Lantern at the top of the building. By 1968 the condition of the Tower had further deteriorated and it was deconsecrated by the Church and put up for sale.
The 1970s
In 1972 the Tower was purchased as an empty building in need of restoration by Drs Elizabeth and Leslie Hilliard. The Hilliards opened the Tower to visitors at weekends for a small admission charge. By 1973 they had also opened a small museum room and had begun to accumulate a collection of original Beckford objects and items relating to the Tower and the life and work of William Beckford. In 1977 they undertook major restoration works to the Tower, turning part of the building into flats to generate income. They then established the Beckford Tower Trust by Deed of Trust and in the same year the Tower building was gifted by the Hilliards to the charity through a Deed of Gift. The museum continued to increase in size as the Hilliards’ work increasingly promoted research into Beckford’s life and collection.
Structural Restoration of Beckford’s Tower 1997-2000
By the mid-1990s the Lantern structure at the top of the Tower was structurally unsound, in part due to all the changes that had been made to it in the 1930s and partly due to historic design faults. It could visibly be seen to lean slightly at the top. A major structural restoration was undertaken supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund between 1997-2000, with the Bath building firm Emery Brothers as the main contractors of the project.
The result saved the building structurally, restored the original pink colour to the staircase walls, and restored the gilding to the roof and columns. Internal staircases and a wall installed in the 1970s were removed to allow a Museum space on the first floor. The ground floor was rented to the Landmark Trust who recreated the interiors in the manner of the original Goodridge design.


Our Tower 2019-2024
Beckford’s Tower is a Grade I listed building and in 2019 was put on the ‘Heritage at Risk’ Register by Historic England. This was not due to any form of neglect, but largely due to the climate emergency, because deterioration of the highly exposed lantern and stonework to wind and increased heavy rain meant that without major investment in conservation work, within 10 years we would not have been able to sustain the maintenance of the building. In early 2020 we secured a development grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and in 2022 successfully received a £3.9 Million delivery grant to embark on the ‘Our Tower’ project, a major project to conserve the building, adapt it for sustainable energy use, and better tell the complex story of Beckford’s life, relationships and complicity in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved people. It also linked the Tower better with its surrounding landscape and improved access for all.
Once again, the building works were undertaken by Emery Brothers as the main contractors, with Thomas Ford & Partners as the architects, Morton Partnership structural engineers, QODA Mechanical and Electrical consultants, Thomas Matthews Interpretation Design and Iona Keen Interpretation Consultant.
The “Our Tower’ project has been undertaken in consultation with our Community Advisory Panel, our local communities, organisations, residents and academic advisors to encourage multiple voices to be heard. This is an on-going process. The Museum has been designed to enable displays to change easily as new information and understandings emerge. There is still a lot to be discovered and many other voices and perspectives that have not yet been heard.
Today the Tower is looked after by the charity Bath Preservation Trust. It aims to maintain the Tower, landscape and Museum collection, and to tell the story of the Tower, William Beckford and his involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.
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