The site Wood chose for the Royal Crescent also shows that he was interested in creating a proto-romantic dialogue between his buildings and the surrounding countryside. Previous buildings and set-pieces in Bath were all intensely urban and inward looking whereas the Royal Crescent was fully open and looked out on to open fields. This is not always apparent today, but when it was built in 1775 the crescent was situated right on the edge of the city with no nearby buildings to block residents' views of the countryside. The Royal Crescent is among the greatest examples of Georgian architecture to be found in the United Kingdom and is a Grade I listed building.