The West of England Mayoral Combined Authority has promised £7m of additional investment to turn a former post office into the new home for the Fashion Museum Bath.
The museum, which was based in Bath’s Assembly Rooms until 2022, plans to renovate the former Old Post Office on New Bond Street and create a new public realm around it including the creation of a new city square.
The £39.5m capital project has already received £20m from Bath & North East Somerset Council and two earlier grants from the West of England Combined Mayoral Authority of £1.75m and £1.5m, as well as £768,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Having secured planning permission back in May, construction on the project is expected to begin in winter 2027 for a 2030 reopening. It is anticipated that more than 250,000 people will visit annually, generating at least £111m in economic and social value across the West of England.
“The museum will be much more than a world-class cultural attraction. It will be a catalyst for regeneration, bringing new opportunities for local people, supporting businesses, creating jobs and attracting visitors from across the UK and around the world,” said Kevin Guy, the leader of Bath & North East Somerset Council.
Advertisement
The London-based studio 6a architects – which is also working on Tate Liverpool’s 2027 redevelopment – has been appointed to the project. Its designs include changing the ground floor of the post office building to create a public foyer with a café and shop, centred around a courtyard garden designed by Sarah Price Landscapes. Two principal gallery floors will house the collections, with changing exhibition spaces designed by JA Projects, which recently completed work on the new V&A East Museum.
Located at the corner of a busy junction with Northgate Street, the museum project includes major public realm improvements of the Milsom Quarter. Subject to statutory approvals, the first phase of the Milsom Quarter Public Realm programme is continuing to progress through design development.
Helen Godwin, the mayor of the West of England, said: “Our investment will create new learning and skills opportunities for local people, bring greater economic returns for businesses in the everyday economy, and open up more job opportunities in hospitality and retail.
“Securing the museum’s long-term future in the Milsom Quarter and unlocking its full potential is a powerful statement of our ambition for Bath and the wider West of England.”
Bath & North East Somerset Council is the custodian of the Fashion Museum Collection, which spans 400 years of human creativity from 1600 to the present day. Founded in 1963 as the Museum of Costume, the original collection was gifted to the city of Bath by collector, writer, and dress historian Doris Langley Moore in 1959.
Designated as a collection of outstanding national significance, it has since grown to 100,000 items, with strengths in European, especially British, fashionable dress and accessories. It also encompasses sketches, fashion magazines, fashion photography and designers' archives.
