By John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter: Plans to bring the Fashion Museum back to Bath with a new “absolutely amazing” home in the city centre have been approved.
Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee voted today (May 13) to grant planning permission to turn the grade II listed old post office on the corner of New Bond Street and Broad Street into an iconic new home for the museum. Construction is expected to start next year, with the museum expected to open in Autumn 2030.
Council cabinet member Paul Roper said: “Securing planning permission for Fashion Museum Bath is a landmark moment for our city. This project is about much more than a new museum: it is a transformative investment in Bath’s cultural future, bringing new life to historic buildings, creating inspiring spaces for learning and creativity, and ensuring that this world‑class collection can be enjoyed by generations to come.”
The museum is expected to attract a quarter of a million visitors per year and generate £100m a year in benefits to the area through increased spending, employment, and health and wellbeing. Like the Roman Baths, which is also owned and run by the council, it will be free for Bath and North East Somerset residents with a discovery card.
The plan will see galleries created upstairs, with a flexible exhibition space the 2005 extension to the rear. Another extension will be demolished to recreate the building’s old courtyard, while a “large and welcoming foyer” will include a museum shop with a storefront on New Bond Street.
The planning application was submitted by the council’s own heritage services department. This does not guarantee planning approval, as councillors on the planning committee have been known to turn down the council’s own applications in the past. But the plans were widely supported by the experts consulted and only received one single objection from a member of the public.
Two former leaders of the council, who now sit on the planning committee, praised the plan. Tim Warren (Midsomer Norton Redfield, Conservative), who led the council from 2015-2019, said: “I think its going to be beautiful when its finished.”
His successor as leader Liberal Democrat Paul Crossley (Southdown) added: “This is an absolutely amazing proposal.” Mr Crossley said that the fact such a major development in the centre of Bath have virtually no objections was a credit to the work which had been done on the plan.
Rob Cambell, the council’s head of heritage and culture, told the committee: “This is the kind of project that places wait decades for: culturally ambitious, economically credible, socially viable, and environmentally responsible. It secures the long term future of the grade II listed old post office and transforms it into a major new cultural destination in the heart of Bath — the first major new museum in the city for nearly 40 years.”
The world-famous Fashion Museum collection includes more than 1,000 items of clothing spanning four centuries of fashion history. Since the National Trust took back the museum’s former home at the Assembly Rooms in 2023, the internationally significant collection has been stored in a glove factory in Wiltshire. Mr Crossley said: “The fact that we have now arrived here shows that, in the end, the National Trust have done us a long term favour.”
Once open, the Fashion Museum is expected to create 38 full time jobs, or equivalent. In the meantime, the project will create 165 construction jobs.
Bath and North East Somerset Council also plans to pedestrianise the end of Broad Street, turning it into a new public square in front of St Michael’s Church. This would include outdoor seating from the planned cafe in the Fashion Museum foyer.
Tom Emerson OBE, of 6a architects who designed the museum, said: “We are delighted to achieve planning permission for the Fashion Museum Bath and are grateful to the many hundreds of people who have contributed to the museum so far. […] The transformation of the former post office will continue Bath’s legacy of outstanding architecture with a museum designed for today and for future generations.”
The old post office building is one of the few 20th century buildings in Bath’s historic city centre to be grade II listed. It should not be confused with the city’s other “old post office,” near the other end of Broad Street, which has just been turned into the city’s new Wetherspoons.
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