The Holburne Museum Galleries

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.

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.

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.

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.