Future plans for Bath Assembly Rooms

The National Trust has owned the Assembly Rooms since 1931 and in March 2023 we took on its day to day management, welcoming in as many people as we could.  

Since March 2023, over 90,000 people have come through the doors, all of whom have helped us test ideas and learn about the property as plans got underway to create a new Georgian experience.

Bath Assembly Rooms will remain closed until 2027 when the new experience is due to open, transporting visitors back to the social scene of late eighteenth-century Georgian Bath.

This page will be continually updated during the project to bring you the latest news and developments as they happen.

Bringing the Georgian Ball to life

Over the last few years, a team of curators and volunteers have been busy researching Georgian life in Bath, focussing on the people that came to the city to work, live or visit  during that time.

They’ve been developing the back story of eleven characters that will bring the new Georgian experience to life. Through these characters visitors will learn about Georgian Bath in a way that complements the existing Georgian stories already told in the city.

Follow the characters as they prepare for a lavish ball that will take place in the Ball Room. From the master of ceremonies and the hired help to the season’s debutant and her love interests. 

As the characters stories unfold, visitors will see all aspects of the ball in the 18^th century,  from preparing the room, to attending the ball, and the clean-up afterwards.  

Each character is rooted in stories from real people and whilst the building is being transformed, the curators will be finalising the details of the real stories that will be used, from the clothes they’d have worn to the circumstance they found themselves in, and finding real objects from that time that helps bring it to life.

Restoring Bath Assembly Rooms

During WWII much of the original fabric of the ‘Upper Rooms’ was lost when the building sustained heavy damage from bombings. Our plans include reinstating modern replicas of some of those lost features.

Some of the floors will be replaced with new oak floors as they would have been when first built. A grand new, Georgian inspired, modern staircase will replace the 1960 installations.

The front doors will be replaced with new ones that reflect the original character of the building and the eighteenth-century portico columns.

Tackling climate change

Part of the renovations include improvements to reduce the buildings reliance on fossil fuels. In 2025, a new sub-station will be installed, along with air source heat pumps.

Some of the windows are being replaced or draft excluders added to improve heat retention.

Welcoming everyone

We want everyone to feel welcome at Bath Assembly Rooms.

We’ll be installing a a new lift that accesses all four floors of the building. The new main doors will open automatically, and a changing places toilet is being added.

There will be a space in the building created exclusively for use by community groups enabling everyone in Bath to use the Rooms – read more about this in ‘Reconnecting the Rooms’.

Funding the works

At this stage we estimate the project to cost in excess of £17million.

Much of this has been funded through National Trust reserves and internal funds, but there is still a challenging fundraising target to help realise these plans.

We aim to raise £3.2million from fundraising, so far, we’ve raised £2.4million from a range of sources including Individual Donors and Charitable Trusts and Foundations.

A new fundraising campaign launched in February 2025, invites individuals to donate £250 and in return join the Luminaries, which offers a number of benefits including behind-the-scenes updates and free tickets when it opens. Find out more about the Luminaries.