Holburne Museum Bath, Architect, Image, News, Architecture, Opening, Project, Plans

Holburne Museum Bath Extension

Holburne Museum Building, Avon, western England design by Eric Parry Architects, UK

22 Jun 2012

Design: Eric Parry Architects

photograph : Paul Riddle

RIBA Awards – winner, 2012

The Holburne Museum in Bath Award

12 May 2011

Holburne Museum Opening

The Holburne Museum Reopens

The Holburne Museum in Bath, one of the country’s most outstanding small museums, reopens to the public on Saturday 14 May 2011. The new museum is transformed by a £11.2m renovation project, which includes the restoration of its Grade I listed building and the construction of a striking new ceramic and glass extension by Eric Parry Architects.

photo : Paul Riddle

The Museum houses a rich collection of fine and decorative arts built around the remarkable collection of Sir William Holburne, first assembled in 19th century Bath and including works by Gainsborough, Zoffany and Stubbs.

Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Holburne, said: “I am delighted to be opening the new Holburne Museum with Peter Blake on 14 May. Bath is one of the World’s most remarkable cities, demonstrated by its World Heritage status, and this development is a strong statement of the Museum’s confidence and ambition to become one of the major cultural attractions in the region. We are of course immensely grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for its award and to all our other donors who have made this development project possible.”

photo : Paul Riddle

The Holburne is now fully accessible to all visitors for the first time, displays more of its collection than ever before and benefits from larger exhibition spaces. It also offers a garden café and creative learning opportunities for the local community.

images : Hélène Binet

The opening exhibition Peter Blake: A Museum for Myself (14 May – 4 September 2011) will include works from throughout the artist’s career alongside extraordinary objects from his personal collection shown in public for the first time. The collection dates back to the artist’s childhood and includes Victorian collage, folk art, pop ephemera, works by the artist’s friends, showbiz autographs and marching troupes of toy elephants. Exploring the creative relationship between the artist and his cabinet of curiosities, the exhibition will be the first in a series of shows at the Holburne to explore the figure of the collector and the creative act of collecting.

images : Grant Smith

The opening exhibition will be followed by Gainsborough’s Landscapes: Themes and Variations (24 September 2011 – 8 January 2012), which will showcase the remarkable landscape paintings of one of Bath’s greatest artists.

Holburne Museum Bath Building information received 120511

29 Nov 2007

Holburne Museum Bath

Holburne Museum extension revised designs receive planning consent Nov 2007
Resubmitted Sep 2007 with more contextual colours and slight height reduction:

image from architect

Holburne Museum gets the go ahead A landmark decision in Bath last night saw Eric Parry Architects’ extension to the Holburne Museum of Art receive planning consent.

The scheme, which will secure the future of this important museum, was resubmitted in September following a surprise initial refusal. In response to some of the concerns expressed the practice made some amendments to the design, with an overall reduction in height of around a metre, a reduction in the size of the reflecting pool in the surrounding gardens and a change in the colour of the ceramic. A new window overlooking the garden has also been introduced.

Eric Parry, Principal of Eric Parry Architects commented: “We are all absolutely thrilled that consent has been won, this is a major achievement for both the practice and the Holburne Museum. It hasn’t been an easy process but last night’s decision marks a key turning point in the history of the Museum.”

Alexander Sturgis, Director of the Holburne Museum said: “This is a wonderful decision for the future of the Holburne Museum. Our current building, in its extraordinary site, is one of our great assets but it is in desperate need of repair and too small for all we need and wish to do. Eric Parry’s beautiful extension will provide more space for every aspect of our activity from exhibitions to education but the project will also allow us to restore the existing building and help the Holburne fulfil its exceptional potential. We are thrilled that the committee’s decision will enable us to continue to work towards this goal”.

David Posnett, Chairman of the Trustees added: “We have been working to secure the future of the Holburne Museum for the last seven years and the restoration and expansion of the Museum are essential for its survival. We now have the plans in place, with a jewel-like extension designed by one of the country’s best architects, which will allow the museum to thrive.“

The three-storey extension will provide an extra 800 square metres of gallery space to house the collection which has grown by some 2,000 exhibits since the Museum opened in 1916. It will transform the visitor’s experience with improved facilities, a lift which will (for the first time) allow the Museum to be fully accessible to all, and a garden café opening onto the park. The project will reunite the historic Sydney gardens with the city by recreating the clear axis between Great Pulteney Street at one end and the gardens at the other.

Holburne Museum Bath building image / information from Eric Parry Architects 291107

2 May 2007

A new vision for the Holburne Museum, Bath

Holburne Museum CGI : image by Smoothe from Eric Parry Architects

Eric Parry Architects has designed a new extension to the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath. The design makes bold use of ceramic, mirroring the permanent collection of the Museum, much of which will be on display in the new gallery space created by the extension.

The extension is strikingly configured in ceramic and glass, complementing the original Grade 1 Listed building and sympathetic to the museum’s collection of paintings and decorative arts. The new development provides an extra 800 square metres of gallery space in addition to a garden café, educational and other visitor facilities.

The project will reunite the historic Sydney gardens with the city by recreating the clear axis between Great Pultney Street at one end and the gardens at the other.
EPA has an enviable track record working with historic buildings: they are currently working on the redevelopment of St-Martin-in-the-fields in Trafalgar Square, London and the practice has recently completed a new extension to Old Wardour House, Wiltshire.

The Holburne Museum of Art, Bath
The Holburne houses an extraordinarily rich collection of fine and decorative art, including nationally important collections of Renaissance bronzes and maiolica, of silver and porcelain and of paintings and miniatures. The Holburne has at its heart the personal collection of Sir William Holburne which was bequeathed as a kernel of Bath’s first public museum in 1883. In every area he acquired works of exceptional significance and beauty such as Susini’s refined bronze of a Kneeling Woman Bathing, or the Diana and Actaeon plate, a rare and early example of maiolica.

His silver collection is remarkable and his group of 17th century Dutch and Netherlandish painting, including two significant works by Pieter Breughel the Younger, and a fine group of Dutch Italianate landscapes are still the most important in the west of England. Since Sir William’s death the collection has grown by some 2,000 objects which have enlarged the scope of the collection and given it a renowned strength in British Painting, with works by Raeburn, Ramsay, Stubbs, Turner and Gainsborough. Housed in the eighteenth-century Sydney Hotel and set within the park of Sydney Gardens, it is Bath’s most beautiful museum.

For further information on the Holburne Museum of Art, please contact:
Holburne Museum, Great Pulteney Street, Bath BA2 4DB
T: +44 (0) 1225 466669 · email: [email protected]

Holburne Museum Bath Building information from Eric Parry Architects 020507

Holburne Museum Bath Extension designers : Eric Parry Architects, UK

Contact Holburne Museum: 01225 388569

Location: Great Pulteney St, Bath BA2 4DB, England, United Kingdom