The Holburne Museum Galleries
10 September 2025
Eric Parry Architects has completed the £2 million development of two new galleries and ancillary spaces at the Grade I listed Holburne Museum in Bath, Somerset. Delivered with exhibition designer Real Studios, the new galleries expand the public space available for display within the museum by 128 sq m. The project was initiated to accommodate the loan of the exceptional Renaissance treasures from the Schroder family collection and builds upon the success of the practice’s 2011 major project to refurbish and extend the museum, which brought about a fourfold increase in visits.
Thanks to the success of the 2011 project, which delivered a new extension building within the City of Bath’s UNESCO World Heritage Site, The Holburne Museum has become a case study for an approach that integrates high-quality, contemporary architecture into historic contexts. During the 2011 project, the building was comprehensively refurbished, with a three-storey, glass and glazed terracotta extension building added to provide an extra 800 sqm of gallery space, creating room for touring exhibitions that boost the appeal and financial sustainability of the museum. The multi award-winning project was named RIBA South West Building of the Year in 2012.
Writing in the FT in his review of the 2011 project, the Architecture Critic Edwin Heathcote said: “Parry, one of the few British architects able comfortably to negotiate the territory between building for commerce and for the arts, has done what he set out to do – to re-establish a long-lost link between the Georgian city and the magical gardens, and to make a cluttered house into a real museum.”
In 2022, The Holburne approached Eric Parry Architects to explore feasibility options for expanding its gallery space to accommodate the loan of items from the Schroder family, which contains one of the finest private collections of silverware in the UK. Following a thorough investigation of the site’s existing structures and wider historic landscape, the decision was taken to identify spaces within the existing building’s footprint for sensitive conversion into gallery space. To enable the display of the silverware collection together in one location for the first time, the Holburne has transformed a series of back-of-house art store and ancillary spaces at the lower-ground level of the building into a modern gallery space.
The architectural concept for the lower-ground level gallery was to evoke the atmosphere of an intimate treasure chamber—an immersive space of curated wonders. A restrained material palette and carefully controlled lighting strategy draw attention to the richness and intricacy of the artworks on display. The exhibition design features bespoke modern display cases lined with carefully selected blue tones that highlight and complement the silverware and maiolica on display. These cases are paired with fabric-lined walls that provide an elegant backdrop for the hanging of Renaissance paintings.
Oak flooring establishes continuity with the material language of the museum’s existing galleries, while stained oak wall linings discreetly conceal structural elements and essential environmental conditioning systems, ensuring the space meets the rigorous standards of a contemporary gallery. An acoustic plaster ceiling dampens sounds and reinforces the subdued, contemplative quality of the environment.
The Schroder Gallery is accessed via a newly refurbished staircase, which takes its material cues – Portland stone and painted metalwork – from the heritage finishes of the existing stair above. Enhancements to the public route down to the lower-ground level improve legibility and strengthen the connection with the museum’s existing footprint.
Whilst carrying out these works, more generous circulation space has been created on the lower ground floor. Linked to the Schroder Gallery by an open hallway that runs along the centre of the plan, in imitation of the arrangement of the ground floor, a new display area expands the Museum’s capacity to display objects from its own collection.
New art storage has been provided within refurbished areas of the listed building, alongside the integration of essential ancillary functions that support both the renewed lower ground level and the wider museum.
At first-floor level, a new gallery space has been created through the transformation of a former office, returning the space to its historic function as a gallery. The space will display The Schroder Collection’s Old Master paintings and will benefit from new environmental conditioning systems, discreetly integrated within new joinery linings that reference the character of adjacent historic gallery spaces. Entered from the adjacent Davidson Ballroom, the new gallery’s historic timber flooring has been restored in situ, complemented by a new lighting strategy and secondary glazing that enhances the environmental performance of the space. To support environmental control within the space, the door from the gallery onto the main staircase has been closed off, and the existing door panel replaced with a replica incorporating glazed panels, allowing views into the gallery from the circulation space.
Throughout the works, Eric Parry Architects has focused on improving and making public spaces that were beyond the scope of the 2011 refurbishment and extension project. The architectural solution continues to strike a sensitive and elegant balance between the restoration of one of Bath’s most treasured Grade I listed landmarks and contemporary interventions that enhance the experience and accessibility of the museum for more than 100,000 visitors annually.
Eric Parry, Founder and Principal of Eric Parry Architects said:
“The Holburne is one of the star attractions within the extraordinary cultural heritage and cityscape of Bath. This new project brings more of both the historic and contemporary buildings into public use, supporting the Museum’s decades-long effort to better serve a growing audience from around the world.
“The original project to refurbish and extend the Holburne Museum was one of the most memorable projects I’ve been involved with and, with the considerable challenge and responsibility of constructing a new building within a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the most satisfying to complete and then visit over the years. I’m hugely grateful to the Director and Trustees of the museum for their invitation to complete this new expansion of the museum’s gallery space.”