But staff at Bath Assembly Rooms, which was once frequented by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, are urging visitors to make a voluntary donation to help pay for the restoration for merely thinking about the scene.
‘Bit of fun’
“We hear it all the time so we’ve set up a tap-to-donate point where they can make a payment towards our work,” Alana Wright, the experience and visitor manager for venue, told The Guardian newspaper, admitting it was just a “bit of fun”.
She added: “We have suggested that if they are even thinking about the comedy scene, they should donate something to help look after the chandeliers.”
The largest chandelier, hanging in the Great Octagon Room, weighs 440lb and is 10ft tall.
The National Trust spends £4,000 a year to look after the Bath building’s 10 chandeliers, which would have once been lit with tallow candles, then gas before electricity came along.
The use of voluntary donation points could even be introduced to cover restoration work at the charity’s 600 other chandeliers at country and stately homes across the country.
Instead of cleaners holding a sheet beneath the chandeliers, the trust uses a winch system to lower them from the ceiling.