The Corridor is one of the world's earliest retail

Retail

Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...

  arcades

Arcade (architecture)

An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....

, designed by architect Henry Goodridge

Henry Goodridge

Henry Edmund Goodridge was an architect whose work started in the 1820s.-Works:Goodridge's neoclassical buildings in Bath include:* Cleveland Bridge;* one of the earliest shopping arcades...

 and built in 1825, in Bath, Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, England.

The fashion for arranging shops in arcades arose in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in the late 18th Century. The Corridor followed the trend set by London's Burlington Arcade

Burlington Arcade

The Burlington Arcade is a covered shopping arcade in London that runs behind Bond Street from Piccadilly through to Burlington Gardens. It is one of the precursors of the mid-19th century European shopping gallery and the modern shopping centre...

.

The Grade II listed arcade has a glass roof. The High Street end has a Doric

Doric order

The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian.-History:...

 colonnade

Colonnade

In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building....

. Each end has marble

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 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

William Friese-Greene

William Friese-Greene was a British portrait photographer and prolific inventor. He is principally known as a pioneer in the field of motion pictures and is credited by some as the inventor of cinematography.-Career:William Edward Green was born on 7 September 1855, in Bristol...

.

Bombing

On 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.