The Corridor

The Corridor is one of the world's earliest retail arcades, designed by architect Henry Goodridge and built in 1825, in Bath, Somerset, England.The fashion for arranging shops in arcades arose in Paris in the late 18th Century. The Corridor followed the trend set by London's Burlington Arcade.The Grade II listed arcade has a glass roof. The High Street end has a Doric colonnade. Each end has marble columns.A musicians gallery, with a wrought iron balustrade and gilt lions heads and garlands, is in the centre of the arcade.Number 7 was the photographic studio of William Friese-Greene.BombingOn Wednesday 18 December 1974, a telephone warning alerted police in Bath that a bomb was shortly to explode in The Corridor. The subsequent blast from a 5lb bomb planted by the IRA caused huge damage and forced the Corridor to undergo a major renovation programme. No one was hurt in the blast.