Beaux ArtsBath

Beaux Arts is the oldest independent gallery in Bath, opened on York Street in 1979 by Reg and Patricia Singh, who had run a gallery in St Ives before that. It shows contemporary painting, sculpture and ceramics — serious work by established and emerging British artists — from handsome rooms near the Abbey, and remains firmly in the family, with the Singhs' children now among its directors. In a city better known for its Georgian past than its living art, Beaux Arts has spent four decades making the case for the present. Worth going in whether or not you intend to buy.