[2] The tower was built for William Thomas Beckford, a wealthy novelist, art collector and critic, to designs by Henry Goodridge, and was completed in 1827.

Following Beckford's death in 1844, the tower and lands were donated to Walcot parish and a burial ground created, with the Scarlet Drawing Room being converted into a chapel.

It is now home to a museum displaying furniture originally made for the tower and paintings, prints and objects illustrating Beckford's life as a writer, collector and patron of the arts.

In 1822 he sold Fonthill Abbey, and a large part of his art collection, to John Farquhar for £330,000, and moved to Bath, where he bought No.

[7] He also made it his habit to ride up to the tower to view the progress of gardens and works, then walk back down to Lansdown Crescent for breakfast.

[8] Beckford wished that he had built the tower forty feet higher and admitted: "such as it is, it is a famous landmark for drunken farmers on their way home from market".

[8] Beckford's own choice of the best of works of art, vertu, books and prints, as well as the rich furnishings from Fonthill Abbey, were rehoused in his adjoining houses in Lansdown Crescent, Bath and at the tower.

One long narrow room in the tower was fitted out as an "oratory", where the paintings were all of devotional subjects and a marble Virgin and Child stood bathed in light from a hidden skylight.

[2] This enabled the return of Beckford's body from his tomb in Bath Abbey Cemetery, Lyncombe Vale (off Ralph Allen Drive) for reburial near the tower as he had originally wished.

His self-designed tomb – a massive sarcophagus of polished pink granite with bronze armorial plaques – stands on a hillock in the cemetery surrounded by an oval ditch and ha-ha.

On one side is a quotation from his Gothic novel Vathek: "Enjoying humbly the most precious gift of heaven to man – Hope"; and on another these lines from his poem, A Prayer: "Eternal Power!

[11] In 1970 the Church Commissioners declared the chapel redundant and plans drawn up by the new owners, Dr & Mrs Hilliard, to renovate the tower and create two flats.

[23] In the same year, Bath Preservation Trust announced it was raising funds for a £3 million project to restore the tower and surroundings, including the grotto tunnel, and increase public engagement.

[40] In addition to Beckford's tomb, the cemetery is also the burial site for several notable people from Bath, including Henry Goodridge,[41] Field Marshall William Rowan, the Holburne family who founded the Holburne Museum, Anne (the wife of Sir Richard Bickerton, 2nd Baronet) and the feminist writer Sarah Grand.

[45] Visitors can climb the spiral staircase to the restored belvedere below the lantern and experience panoramic views of the surrounding countryside.