Date published: 2025-05-06 | Category: Heritage
Bath and North East Somerset Council has today announced it has received initial support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to progress plans for the development of the UK’s leading museum of fashion - Fashion Museum Bath. It will be located in the Grade II listed Old Post Office in the centre of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Bath.
Fashion Museum Bath will champion fashion’s transformative power as a global industry and expression of creativity, culture and identity. The ground-breaking museum will bring fashion to life for local and national audiences.
Development funding of £768,000 has been awarded by the Heritage Fund to help us progress plans for Fashion Museum Bath and apply for a full National Lottery grant of £7.2million next year.
Thanks to the money raised by National Lottery players, development funding will support the progress of designs for the new museum, and an extensive community consultation, engagement and outreach activities programme with a range of audiences and local partners.
Fashion Museum Bath holds one of the world’s leading collections of fashion. The Collection is designated as one of outstanding significance, containing 100,000 items and spanning 400 years of human creativity, from 1600 to the present day. The Collection includes many of the best examples of fashionable dress in worldwide collections. It is the variety and extent of the collection, accessible in a single museum, that sets it out as rare and unusual on an international scale.
Funding from the Heritage Fund will transform access to the heritage Collection, ensuring it continues to be researched, new stories and diverse voices uncovered, and lost skills rediscovered and shared. An innovative digital programme will further enhance access, with the development of a new sustainable online catalogue making the Collection available to audiences around the world.
Furthermore, funding will also support the sustainable retrofit of the Old Post Office building. One of only a few listed 20th century buildings in central Bath, it will be transformed, restored, and repaired, turning it into a ‘Museum on the high street’ - the ideal space to showcase more of the Collection, through new gallery and learning spaces.
Saving world-class heritage, Fashion Museum Bath will be a catalyst for change, revitalising its Designated Collection in a new museum that will be an exemplar of environmentally sustainable retrofit in a listed building. The museum will inspire and challenge through fashion, exploring it as an artform and global industry, whilst celebrating the creativity of designers, makers, and wearers, and providing learning, skills, digital and wellbeing programmes.
Fashion Museum Bath will appeal to tourists and locals alike, driving socio-economic change and placemaking and supporting and facilitating the creative industries through championing craft, skills, learning & future talent, and creating pathways to jobs and opportunities. It will be a place of community and opportunity for fashion lovers, culture seekers, local audiences, the fashion industry and next generations. Additionally, it will support communities across the region with a range of programmes addressing barriers to access for people who are generally underserved by heritage. It will be a welcoming and accessible space for all.
The project is a key part of Bath and North East Somerset Council’s plan to further its wider economic, health and wellbeing strategies. As an anchor institution in the Milsom Quarter, it will spur wider economic growth by encouraging footfall and extending dwell time in the city centre. The museum will generate employment opportunities through apprenticeships, placements, and partnerships with local service providers. By hosting community-driven engagement programmes and collaborations with local artists and designers, Fashion Museum Bath will contribute to the local creative economy, foster a sense of civic pride and heritage ownership, and help drive domestic and international tourism to the region.
Fashion Museum Bath is anticipated to reopen in 2030. During the development phase, there will be a programme of community driven talks and events, consultations, engagement and outreach activities with a range of audiences and partners across B&NES.
Councillor Paul Roper, Cabinet Member for Economic & Cultural Sustainable Development, said:
“We are thrilled to have received this initial support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players we can now further develop our plans to create our new Fashion Museum of national and international significance. This is going to be a new, world class institution in a UNESCO World Heritage City and there is huge excitement that, at long last, we will be able to display our unique and outstanding fashion collection in a location and setting that it fully deserves, supporting and facilitating the creative industries as well as providing a boost to the visitor economy on which the city relies.
The new museum is a key part of our plan to develop a creative centre in central Bath and provide a further boost to the visitor economy. As an anchor element of the Milsom Quarter Masterplan, the museum will enhance footfall and dwell time in the area and increase the desirability of the city centre”.
Stuart McLeod, Director of England - London & South at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said:
"We're pleased to offer our initial support to this transformational project that will give Fashion Museum Bath a home in the city’s historic centre. Not only does this mean a Grade II listed building will be brought back to life, but also a globally significant collection will be accessible to everyone, both in person and digitally. What stood out for us was how the project is looking to be at the forefront of sustainability, showing how heritage can adapt for the future. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with the team as they progress their plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant at a later date.”
Helen Godwin, the new Mayor of the West of England, said:
“I’m delighted to see the Fashion Museum Bath project secure a development phase grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to take its next step forward. This follows the multimillion-pound commitment from the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority to the wider Milsom Quarter regeneration in the heart of Bath, working with the council. Fashion Museum Bath will be part of a bright new chapter for our region. It will be another jewel in our crown in this part of the West, alongside iconic attractions like the Roman Baths and Jane Austen Centre, showcasing even more of our cultural and creative heritage; creating new jobs; and attracting more investment and visitors."
