Bath Fashion Museum- Architectural Design Team

Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES) is a unitary authority created on 1 April 1996

following the abolition of the County of Avon. The Council has responsibility for almost all

local government functions within the district, including planning, building control, local

roads, council housing, environmental health, markets & fairs, refuse collection, recycling,

cemeteries & crematoria, leisure services, parks, and tourism. It is also responsible for

education, social services, libraries, main roads, public transport, trading standards, waste

disposal and strategic planning. B&NES covers an area of 136 square miles (352 km2), of

which two thirds is green belt. It stretches from the outskirts of Bristol, south into the

Mendip Hills and east to the southern Cotswold Hills and border of Wiltshire. The city of Bath

is the principal settlement in the district. Bath developed as a spa resort in Georgian times

and remains a major cultural tourism centre having gained World Heritage City status.

B&NES wishes to establish a Contract for the provision of Architectural Design Team

services for the new Fashion Museum, Bath. The Fashion Museum, Bath, Collection is in the

care of Heritage Services which is part of Bath and North East Somerset Council. The

Fashion Museum, Bath is one of the world’s great museum collections of historical and

contemporary fashionable dress.

The Fashion Museum, Bath has been housed at the Assembly Rooms in Bath since 1963. The

Assembly Rooms are owned by the National Trust and have been leased to the Council on a

full-maintenance occupancy since 1938. The National Trust decided to take back occupancy

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and management of the Assembly Rooms in March 2023.

This has provided an opportunity to create a new Fashion Museum in Bath city centre.

The new museum is to be located in the Old Post Office, 21-26 New Bond Street and 27

Northgate St, Bath BA1 1BA. The property is located in central Bath occupying a corner

position with frontages onto New Bond Street and Northgate Street which connect with the

primary retailing pitches of Union Street and Milsom Street. The principal retail frontage is to

New Bond Street