Bath’s fashion museum is to reopen thanks to more than £750,000 of new funding.
Fashion Museum Bath left its original underground site in 2023 after the National Trust, owner of the building, enforced a break clause in their contract.
Development funding of £768,000 has been awarded by the Heritage Fund which will help Fashion Museum Bath to reopen at the Old Post Office building.
Now the museum will need a further grant of £7.2 million from the National Lottery to secure its future at the new location, with plans to reopen in 2030.
The museum’s collection contains 100,000 items, spanning from 1600 to the present day. It is said to be one of the world’s leading fashion collections.
The National Trust forced Fashion Museum Bath to leave the old location so that they could develop an immersive Georgian house museum.
The new location is the Grade II listed Old Post Office. The second round of funding of £7.2 million will go towards designing the interior of the museum, alongside a community consultation and outreach activities.
The museum is managed by Bath & North East Somerset Council who worked to secure the funding.
Councillor Paul Roper said: “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.”
Fashion Museum Bath hopes that the opening of the new site will contribute to the local creative economy and drive tourism.
Helen Godwin, the newly-elected Mayor of the West of England, said that the museum will be “another jewel in our crown” and that it will create new jobs and attract more investment.
