Fashion museum gets £7.2m to open in new location

A city's fashion museum has been granted a further £7.2m in funding as it plans to move to a new home.

Bath & North East Somerset (Banes) council has welcomed the funding boost for what it said will be the UK's leading fashion museum.

Fashion Museum Bath is due to reopen in 2030 at the Grade II-listed Old Post Office in the city centre.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund, which offered the grant, called it a "once-in-a-generation project" to restore the historic building on Milsom Quarter.

Its collection - which has since been stored in a glove factory in Wiltshire - contains 100,000 items covering 400 years, from 1600 to the present day.

Banes council leader, Kevin Guy, said the grant marks a "transformational moment for Bath".

"It will breathe new life into a landmark building," he said.

"At a time when many places are scaling back ambition, Bath is investing in its future."

The new funding boost builds on a previous £768,000 grant by the Heritage Fund, alongside investment from the West of England Combined Authority (Weca) and Banes council.

Weca mayor Helen Godwin said: "The museum will not only strengthen Bath's existing appeal as a world-class visitor destination, but further cement the West of England's reputation as a globally leading centre of creativity and culture."

The original museum closed in 2022 when the National Trust took back the Assembly Rooms, where it had been for nearly 60 years.

Fashion Museum Bath is anticipated to reopen in 2030 with construction starting on site in late 2027.

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