More than 1,000 join annual Hindu festival at temple in Bath which is set to be demolished

  • Watch Max Walsh's report here.

More than 1,000 people from across the UK came for a major annual festival at the Hindu Temple in Bath, however it was tinged with sadness as the building is set to be demolished next year.

As part of the Ratha Yatra celebration, idols of Lord Jagannath and his brother and sister are taken outside the temple and paraded in the street in decorated chariots.

On Sunday July 7, a procession lasting three hours saw chariots heading along Rush Hill with people from across the UK coming to the event.

Bath’s Hindu Temple is the only temple dedicated to Lord Jagganath in Europe. But the celebration happened under the shadow of the fact that it will be demolished next year.

The Shree Jagannatha temple opened in 2021 in old school buildings of the former Culverhay School, moving in on a temporary basis as the school had closed.

Now Bath and North East Somerset Council plans to demolish the old school buildings to build two new schools on the site.

The part of the site containing the temple will remain until July next year to allow more time for the community to find a new temple.

The Ratha Yatra chariot procession in Bath

Susmita Rajhansha, who founded the temple, said: “People come here, sit together, eat together, and drink together.”

Touching on next year, she said: “It really depends because what’s happening, we don’t know exactly.”

The council plans to clear the site of the former Culverhay School and turn it over to the Department for Education to build two new schools.

One will be a new school for children with special educational needs and disabilities, the other an alternative provision school for vulnerable pupils at risk of permanent exclusion.

Bath Mayor Michelle O’Doherty was at the Ratha Yatra on Sunday and the council has said it will engage with the temple over the plans.

Ashish Rajhansha, of the Hindu Temple, said: “This has been our home for about three years.”

He said it would take at least six months to build a temporary site that the temple could move into, and warned that the temple may have to close for a period if a new location could not be found in time.

He said: “It will be very painful for us if we don’t find somewhere very quickly.”