Discover The Best Museums In Bath
The city of Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and as such has a wealth of museums and attractions representing many periods of its history. Whether you’re into history, fashion, art, the Romans or the Georgians, Bath has it all. Where will you visit when you stay at Burghope Cottage?
1. The Holburne Museum
The Holburne Museum, the city’s first public art gallery, is located in Sydney Pleasure Gardens. Discover fascinating art exhibitions in an impressively majestic setting. Click here to view all exhibitions and events.
2. The Roman Baths
Discover 2000 years of history at the heart of the World Heritage Site. Here, the Romans built a magnificent temple and bathing complex on the site of Britain’s only hot spring, which still flows with natural hot water today. Walk around the impressive Great Bath, see the ruins of the temple of Minerva, and explore the fascinating museum where you can find out more about those who lived and worked here. Click here to visit the website.
3. The American Museum & Gardens
The American Museum takes you on a journey through the history of America, from its early settlers to the twentieth century. With its remarkable collection of folk and decorative arts, the Museum shows the diverse and complex nature of American traditions. The museum is located at Claverton Manor, a Grade I listed country house, set among extensive parkland and gardens, which have been landscaped to represent different aspects of both English and American garden design including a replica of George Washington’s garden at Mount Vernon..
4. The Jane Austen Centre
Step into Austen’s world. Celebrating Bath’s most famous resident, The Jane Austen Centre offers you a snapshot of life during Regency times and explores how living in this magnificent city affected Jane Austen and her writing.
5. Victoria Art Gallery
The Victoria Art Gallery is a public art museum in Bath which opened in 1900 to commemorate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. The museum is home to a richly diverse collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts.
6. No.1 Royal Crescent
Bridgerton fans will immediately recognise the exterior of No.1 Royal Crescent as the home of the Featherington family! No.1 Royal Crescent is a magnificently restored town-house museum where you can explore fashionable life in Georgian Bath of the 18th century.
7. Herschel Museum of Astronomy
Home to astronomer William Herschel during the 18th century, Herschel Museum of Astronomy offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of one of Bath’s most extraordinary residents. Herschel created his own telescopes, and using these in the garden of his Bath home, was the first person to discover the planet Uranus. The house has been fully restored to its original Georgian condition, and contains the workshop in which Herschel created his telescopes, with replicas of his machines, as well as the beautiful garden in which he discovered the new planet for the first time.
8. The Museum of Bath at Work
The Museum of Bath at Work is the city’s local history museum telling the tale of 2000 years of the city’s development. Displays include Bath Stone, Bath Chairs and Bath Buns, and all other ways in which Bath people have earned a living since Roman times.
9. The Museum of East Asian Art
Situated just off the Circus in central Bath, The Museum of East Asian Art is the only UK museum solely dedicated to the arts and cultures of East and South East Asia, with collections spanning over 7000 years. For more information or to plan your visit and explore the collections, visit their website.
10. Beckford’s Tower & Museum
Beckford’s Tower is an extraordinary building, built between 1826 and 1827, that was once home to one of the greatest collections of books, furniture and art in Georgian England and now stands as the only surviving example of William Beckford’s great architectural achievements. The Tower is home to a museum collection displaying furniture originally made for the Tower, alongside paintings, prints and objects illustrating Beckford’s life as a writer, collector and patron of the arts.
11. Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein
Enjoy an immersive experience and museum bursting with unusual artefacts and vintage items at Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein. In 1816, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein whilst resident in Bath and this attraction offers a chance to step into the dark world of the author, uncover the tragic events behind her life, and come face-to-face with Frankenstein. Click here to buy your tickets.
12. Sally Lunn’s Kitchen Museum
Sally Lunn’s is one of the oldest houses in Bath. Their kitchen museum is believed to originally have been the bakery of the young Huguenot baker who created the first Bath bun: a regional speciality now known the world over. Admission is just 30p for adults.
13. The Fashion Museum
A stunning museum in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage City of Bath, dedicated to fashion, with an anticipated reopening in 2030. The new museum, located in the Grade II listed Old Post Office in the heart of the city, will celebrate the transformative power of fashion while establishing a welcoming space to share and explore the unique stories that fashion can tell.