2019 - romanbaths.co.uk · roman baths 1,163,129-3% 1,202,491 fashion museum 99,900 1% 98,784...

2019

2020

Heritage Services

Annual Review

For learning, inspiration, and enjoyment

2 Heritage Services Annual Review 2019/20

2019/20 at a glance Visitors

£24.7m income

£9.6m

profit

13%

increase on

last year

£62,012

net profit per Heritage Services staff member

people attended private or civic events at our venues

565,772

items sold in our museums’ shops

53,126

52,417 people attended learning and community events

124

film days facilitated by Bath Film Office contributed an estimated £2

million into the local economy

2019/20 +/- 2018/19

Roman Baths 1,163,129 -3% 1,202,491

Fashion Museum 99,900 1% 98,784

Victoria Art Gallery 187,629 0% 187,563

Total 1,450,658 -3% 1,488,838

£45

Net income per B&NES resident

£103

Net income per B&NES household

Awards

The Roman Baths & Pump Room South West Tourism Excellence Awards: Large Visitor Attraction of the Year GOLD International Tourism Award GOLD Accessible & Inclusive Tourism Award GOLD Bristol, Bath & Somerset Tourism Awards: Large Visitor Attraction of the Year GOLD International Tourism Award GOLD Accessible & Inclusive Tourism Award GOLD Autism Friendly Award 2020 VisitEngland Visitor Attractions Quality Scheme 92% nominated for Gold (attractions) and Best Told Story (attractions) The Sandford Award for Heritage Learning was awarded to the

Roman Baths in November 2019

The Assembly Rooms South West Tourism Excellence Awards: Business Events Venue of the Year GOLD Bristol, Bath & Somerset Tourism Awards: Business Events Venue of the Year GOLD Fashion Museum

VisitEngland Visitor Attractions Quality Scheme 90%

World Heritage Site Enhancement Fund Georgian Group National Award (Street Sign Restoration Project)

-3%


2019/20 Milestones

• Record £9.6M annual profit returned to Council to support essential services.

• More than a million people world-wide saw Fashion Museum objects at exhibitions in the UK, Denmark, USA and Australia.

• The Victoria Art Gallery’s Toulouse-Lautrec exhibi-tion, sadly cut short by Covid-19, attracted a record 12,435 visitors in just 33 days.

• Bath Film Office facilitated filming in Bath for ITV’s police drama McDonald and Dodds, period drama Belgravia; and Netflix’s Regency series Bridgerton.

• Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of Pan was exhibited at the Victoria Art Gallery from April to July 2019 as part of the National Gallery’s Masterpiece Tour 2019.

• New commercial offers were launched: The Roman Baths developed its own take on the popular Escape Room with Roman Rescue; Victoria Art Gallery ran a combined exhibition and film offering, Moulin Rouge and the Masters of Montmartre includ-ed late opening at the Gallery and the screening of the film Moulin Rouge at the Little Theatre.

Service Aims • To enhance the quality of life for residents of Bath &

North East Somerset

• To enable people to learn from the activities and

achievements of past and present societies

• To maximise public enjoyment of the world class

heritage

• To promote understanding and appreciation of

different cultures

• To contribute to the district’s economic prosperity through our Business Plan

Foreword by Stephen Bird MBE

As I write this foreword under Covid-19 lock-down, it is hard to think of anything other than the calamitous circum-stances that blighted the last two months of 2019/20. After dwindling visitor numbers through February and March 2020, we finally closed

our doors to visitors, researchers, shoppers, diners and event guests thirteen days before the end of the finan-cial year.

Some of our team self-isolated and most of us continued to work from home. Some redeployed to other parts of the Council to help with essential services, while many others volunteered but were not called upon. Operations team members continued to go into our buildings for essential maintenance and security work, as did curators and archivists to check on collections. I am so proud of how everyone pulled together to help.

Despite the downturn in the last two months of the year, we still returned a net profit of £9.6M to help the Council fund essential services in the community.

It is also important to look back to the majority of

2019/20 and the huge amount of work that went into delivering services to residents of Bath and North East Somerset and visitors from around the world. The year saw a busy programme of engagement activities across our sites and out in the community, attended by over 52,000 people. Our museums and exhibitions continued to attract large numbers with Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre at the Victoria Art Gallery, alt-hough sadly cut short by COVID-19, the star show attracting very large numbers. Work continued on the Archway Project, with builders on site throughout the year, and on the Wellcome Trust-funded Building a Healthier City project at Bath Record Office.

The Fashion Museum’s world-class collection continued to be in demand at major venues with over a million people seeing its objects displayed on loan at the V&A London, Copenhagen’s Natural History Museum, and New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (twice).

Finally, I must thank our front-line staff and those work-ing behind the scenes across the Service for their on-going dedication, hard work and expertise. And I cannot finish without paying tribute to the volunteers working across the Service, stewarding at Victoria Art Gallery and helping curators and archivists with work on collec-tions and supporting the Learning and Participation pro-gramme of activities throughout the year.

Grants

Fashion Museum Donation of £1,000 from West of England Costume So-ciety for the conservation and display of dolls in the Little and Large display.

Victoria Art Gallery For the first time Heritage Services used a crowdfund-ing appeal to raise money. The Art Fund Art Happens crowdfunding campaign was a great success and raised £12,956 for the Toulouse Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre exhibition and activity programme. The Gallery also received £39,670 from the Arts Council National Project Grants for this exhibition.

Bath Record Office Bath Record Office was awarded a grant of £169,117 by the Wellcome Trust to catalogue and conserve records relating to slum clearance and council housing in Bath from 1890-1995, as part of the Building a Healthier City project.


Community, Learning, & Engagement

Learning & Participation

• The Roman Baths received the Sandford Award for Heritage Learning at the V&A Museum of Childhood in November.

• The Roman Baths joined other heritage sites across the country to be part of Poetry of Place. We welcomed poet Neil Rollinson to work with local groups and perform at a poetry evening event in July.

• Victoria Art Gallery workshop leaders developed activities for local schools and community groups as part of the National Gallery’s Masterpieces Tour: The Triumph of Pan.

Roadshows

The Roman Baths delivered the following community events:

• Bath World Heritage Day, 18 April 2019, Green Park Station. Stalls and talks were organised on the theme of Architecture and Engineering .

• Festival of British Archaeology, July 2019. Partnership with Sydney Gardens Parks Department for National Lottery Heritage Fund Project. More than 250 people attended The Deathly Secrets of Sydney Gardens to learn about the history of death and burial in the gardens.

• Museum Roadshow, Batheaston and Beyond held in Batheaston Scout Hut on 29 October 2019.

Bath Record Office also took part in community events:

• World Heritage Day held at Green Park Station,18 April 2019.

• Bristol and Avon Family History Society Fair, 28 September 2019

.

15,273 learning visitors to the Roman Baths, Fashion Museum and Victoria Art Gallery

37,108 participants at community activities

3,814 objects viewed at 3,311 research appointments facilitated by Bath Record Office

185 events held at our sites

1,477 Fashion Museum objects viewed at 151 study appointments with 320 groups or individuals

117 researchers helped by the Roman Baths Collections Team

World Heritage Day at Green Park Station The Roman Baths museum roadshow at Batheaston

Scout Hut


Events Fashion Museum

• 7 practical making workshops were held in partnership with the Royal School of Needlework.

• 12 Saturday Sketching sessions encouraged self-led sketching in the Fashion Museum galleries.

• 11 Children’s activities developed and delivered. The Roman Baths

• 33 days of Togas and Tunics sessions transformed visitors with Roman attire.

• 1 Evening Explorers event opened the site up to visitors with autism.

• 6 Words on Wednesdays events looked at objects from the Roman Baths’ collections.

• 1 Poetry of Place evening event.

• 6 Science Busking events as part of British Science Week.

• 1 Day School: The Ancient Romans & their gods.

• 250 visitors took part in the Museums at Night event in the Pump Room.

• 3 Museum Stores Open Days opened up the museum’s collection to pre-booked tours.

• 2 Roadshows: Midsomer Norton Arts Festival and Batheaston Scout Hut.

• 270 participants at the Festival of Archaeology in partnership with Sydney Gardens.

• 40 Tai Chi on the Terrace morning sessions.

• 6 Above & Below tours at the Roman Baths.

Victoria Art Gallery

• 9 Art Store Tours looked at the collection stored behind the scenes.

• 2 artists’ lunchtime talks were held at the Gallery.

• 20 family events developed and delivered.

• 8 Art on Mondays talks for the visually impaired.

• 3 lunchtime talks related to the James Tower exhibition were held in the Guildhall.

• 9 Collection Highlights Tours.

• 2 Artist in Residence sessions with Harriet Dahan-Bouchard life-drawing from a model.

• 1 combined exhibition and film event linked to the exhibition Toulouse Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre.

World Heritage

• Bath World Heritage Day was held on 18 April at Green Park Station; over 700 visitors attended.

Bath Record Office

• 1 Store Tour, including highlights from the rare books collection.

• 1 Conservation Studio Open Day.

• Genealogy Day Event held at Bath Central Library on 14 March.

Heritage Services

• 19 local heritage organisations took part in Heritage Open Days over 10 days with 33 activities.

• Museums Week (26 October – 3 November 2019) saw 130 events held by 19 local heritage organisations, free to Discovery Card holders.


Community Groups

Accessibility

Feedback from visitors:

“This was wonderful! It’s so nice to come when it’s all

quiet! Thank you!”

“Massive thank you for Evening Explorers! Very happy

kids.”

“Thank you for organising such a special event. It is

memorable and educational.”

Work Placements

and Volunteers We worked with Parkinson’s UK as part of the Archway Project and delivered Wellbeing Wonders sessions.

We continued to work closely with Bath Carers’ Centre and, in partnership with World Heritage, we developed a programme for Young Carers as part of a National Lottery Heritage Fund project called World Heritage Youth Ambassadors. This started but had to be put on hold in March.

We started our community programme funded by the Arts Council to accompany the Toulouse Lautrec exhibition at Victoria Art Gallery. We worked with members of the Genesis Trust and held an Evening Explorers event for people with autism before we had to stop in March.

We hosted our fourth Evening Explorers event at the Roman Baths, welcoming 77 visitors to the museum after hours. At the event we provided our usual visit, but by limiting the ticket numbers we created a more relaxed environment, which we know is important to some of our visitors with autism and other related conditions. The Visitor Experience team have all attended Autism Awareness training and were able to help with any queries.

The event is primarily for families with children on the autistic spectrum. We also invite some local schools and support groups, who work with children with autism.

We are still helping to promote accessibility and inclusivity at the Roman Baths and have been sharing best practice through hosting visits from representatives of other attractions including: Tiger de Souza, Director of Inclusivity and Hilary McGrady, Director General of the National Trust; Noah’s Ark Zoo near Bristol, and Tredegar House in Wales.

At the Fashion Museum we have introduced new signage and directions to allow lift users to have an independent self-directed visit. This has been appreciated by visitors with mobility impairments and those with baby buggies.

As well as our usual range of customer service training, staff took part in some new training to help support visitors and other staff, including Mental Health First Aid training and the Stroke Awareness training sessions. Training resources were also created by one of our Visitor Experience Hosts for Recycling and Sustainability Awareness.

• 46 students from 18 secondary schools worked alongside the Visitor Experience team.

• Four Heritage Apprentices were appointed, part funded by the Apprenticeship Levy, working in rotation with the Visitor Experience team including Retail Sales, and the Operations team at the Roman Baths & Fashion Museum.

• Amy Brown and Abigail Bradford successfully completed their apprenticeships and have both been employed as Seasonal Visitor Experience Hosts.

• Six students had long term placements, two from America, one from Italy and three from Farleigh SEN College.

• Two students attended an extended placement as part of Project Search and one of them is now employed as a Museum Porter.

• An MA Heritage Management student helped to facilitate British Science Week events in March.

• Six Bath Spa University 3rd year Heritage Students worked on the Archway Activity Plan project Digital Heritage Explorers.

• An MA student from Bath Spa University helped to develop the Roman Baths Places of Poetry project.

• The Roman Baths Collection team welcomed a long term placement from Australia, and two students on bursaries from both the Roman Society and the British Numismatic Society. 26 volunteers assisted the Collections team with cataloguing, changing displays, collections care and events work.

• Two MA Museum Studies students developed family trails for the Fashion Museum and Victoria Art Gallery.

• The Fashion Museum’s long-standing skilled volunteers continue to support and work with the team on a variety of tasks from sorting the reference library, making box liners, organising archive collections, and conserving objects for display.

• The Fashion Museum welcomed a student from Leicester University Museum Studies, who worked on The Magazine Store Location Project, to locate and improve accessibility for a new storage space housing part of the Fashion Museum Archive Collection.

• Bath Spa University student from the MA Arts Management course worked on the Triumph of Pan project at Victoria Art Gallery.

• An MA Arts Management Student assisted workshop leaders at the Victoria Art Gallery with our Arts Council project for the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition.

• The Gallery’s 71-strong team of volunteer guides put in a massive 4,554 hours of service in the building, enabling the venue to maintain excellent customer service levels throughout the entire year.

• Bath Record Office Archives and Local Studies has supported over 25 volunteers who have been contributing to a variety of projects ranging from cataloguing, transcribing, indexing to helping with conservation work. Their dedication and commitment has resulted in over 3,000 hours of their time.

We are very grateful to all of our volunteers who give their time so willingly.


2019/20 +/- 2018/19

£000 % £000

Admissions 17,798 9% 16,261

Sales 2,399 (1%) 2,421

Room Hire 594 10% 541

Catering 684 (3%) 705

Other Income 363 (24%) 475

Internal Income 2,891 (0%) 2,903

Total Income 24,729 6% 23,307

0 0

Employee Costs (4,959) (4,702)

Premises Costs (626) (678)

Transport Costs (34) (31)

Supplies & Services (1,416) (1,289)

Purchases for Resale (1,088) (1,089)

Voluntary Sector (11) (10)

Contracts (832) (828)

Investment (956) (1,276)

Total Variable Costs (9,922) (0%) (9,903)

0 0

Rates (969) (843)

External Insurers (251) (256)

Divisional Overheads (2,891) (2,899)

Corporate Overheads (555) (582)

Finance & Debt Charges (529) (514)

Total Fixed Costs (5,195) (2%) (5,093)

Easter Reserve Adjustment 0 156

Release of Bad Debt Provision 0 72

One-off Adjustments 0 100% 228

Surplus / (Deficit) 9,612 13% 8,538

Operating Margin 39% 37%

Employee Costs % 20% 20%

Capital expenditure 2019/20 2018/19

£000 £000

VAG Air Conditioning (211) (2)

Archway Centre (1,677) (34)

Energy Capture Scheme (7) 0

Pump Room Piano Repairs (23) 0

King’s Bath Conservation 0 (81)

Total (1,918) (117)

Financial and Business Review 2019/20

Financial Performance


Heritage Services operates as a business unit within the Council and prepares its accounts on a full absorption basis, including a full allocation of overhead and debt finance costs.

For the first time in eight years Heritage Services saw a fall in visitor numbers, which dropped 3%. This is entirely due to the impact of COVID-19, which affected visitor numbers from February 2020. On 18

March 2020

our buildings closed for an indefinite period of time. Up to this point visitor numbers had been strong at the Roman Baths, Fashion Museum and Victoria Art Gallery, with the Roman Baths having its busiest ever calendar year in 2019.

During 2019 there was strong growth in UK visitors as well as international audiences from both China and the US, supported by a relatively weak pound. However there was a drop in visitors from mainland Europe. The strong admission income performance was principally driven by a new pricing strategy at the Roman Baths, introduced in 2019.

Corporate Hire enjoyed a very successful year, supported through significant filming revenue at the Assembly Rooms and the continuing popularity of our spaces as unique wedding venues.

The Roman Baths and Pump Room is a member of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) and during 2019 maintained its position as one of the leading attractions in the UK. The site is the 25

th most

popular attraction in the UK and 3rd

in England, outside London.

A revised pricing strategy was introduced in 2019 at the Roman Baths; this pricing structure offered visitors the choice of a price, visit date and booking method which best met their needs and budget. This new approach to pricing and continued promotion of the shoulder months has resulted in more sustainable revenue growth, with a 2.4% drop in visitors during the peak months of June - August compared to the Roman Bath’s previous record year in 2017 and 12% growth in April, May, September and October, also compared to 2017. Our admissions revenue growth in the calendar year 2019 was £2.33m; some of this was eroded by the impact of COVID-19 in the final quarter of the financial year. At the Fashion Museum visitor numbers and admission income grew through increased awareness of the significance of the museum and its collection, following the National Trust’s announcement that they are invoking the break clause in B&NES’ tenancy at the Assembly Rooms in 2023.

The Victoria Art Gallery’s revenue growth builds on a strong year in 2018/19; the timing of the COVID-19 closure was particularly unfortunate as Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre had only been open for 33 days. However it had already welcomed 12,435 visitors and was proving to be one of the Gallery’s most popular shows ever.

Financial Summary

Performance Measurement-

Profitability

Heritage Services measures its business performance against comparable large UK visitor attractions through the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA). This financial benchmarking showed that the Roman Baths and Pump Room is the most effective site at converting income to profit within ALVA and generates the highest level of profit per visitor of all Heritage sites within the ALVA benchmarking group.

The Roman Baths and Pump Room also generated the highest income and profit per employee, as well as the lowest labour cost as a percentage of turnover.

During 2019/20 39% of the income taken in Heritage Services was returned as profit, up from 37% in 2018/19.

Visitor enjoyment

Admission Income

How visitors rate their experience is crucial to sustaining excellent performance and is also tracked through ALVA benchmarking. The table (below) summarises the ‘quality of visit’ benchmarking.

The Roman Baths’ value for money, visitor experience and net promoter scores all increased in 2019/20, indicating that as well as welcoming more people (prior to COVID-19 closure) they have had an even better time than those who came last year.

It is pleasing to see the improvement of the Value for Money score (from 7.9), indicating that the new pricing strategy has provided the opportunity for visitors to choose a price that meets their needs, whilst also delivering significant additional revenue.

Our scores are marginally lower than the ALVA benchmark; it is also worth noting that many of our ALVA peers are national museums offering free entry, which will be reflected in the results.

Admission income (£000s) 2019/20 +/- 2018/19

Roman Baths 16,895 10% 15,427 Fashion Museum 691 9% 631 Victoria Art Gallery 213 7% 199 17,798 9% 16,258

Enjoyment Value Net Promoter for Money Score

All attractions 8.8 8.5 + 58

Roman Baths 8.7 8.1 + 59

Museums & 8.8 8.8 + 59

Galleries

Heritage Sites 8.8 8.4 + 56

Leisure Attractions 8.9 8.4 + 61

Highest score 9.4 9.4 + 79


Retail

At the end of February, prior to the site closures, the Roman Baths and Fashion Museum were both ahead of the prior year and all three attractions were ahead of budget. This performance was supported by the development of new product ranges at the Roman Baths and Fashion Museum and the investment in “active selling” training for retail staff.

The results of the ALVA Quality retail survey exceeded those of all ALVA heritage sites in the country, and our own scores from previous years. This exit survey included ratings for the range of merchandise sold, staff friendliness and helpfulness, and the shops overall.

The Roman Baths Shop

We have sourced a replacement for the plastic bottles of mineral water on sale introducing a new Tetra style pack with a closure made from sugar cane, providing a sustainable and recyclable option for the customer.

We commissioned a bespoke double-sided souvenir coin/medal featuring the iconic view of the Great Bath one side and the Gorgon’s Head on the reverse. Since it arrived in September we have sold 2,651 coins with sales at £8,797.

As a tie in with Bath Children’s Literature Festival we negotiated a money off customer promotion with one of our best-selling book publishers. The books were featured in our windows and we increased sales by over £500 on the previous year, whilst also increasing our gross profit; our customers bought 163 more copies than in the same period last year.

For the Christmas season we sourced two new additions to our successful Minerva’s Pantry alcohol range, both from local suppliers: a 10 year- old Somerset Brandy and a Rum Caramel. This contributed to a 29% increase in sales overall for the range, selling 477 more items in the festive season.

Income (£000s) 2019/20 +/- 2018/19

Roman Baths 2,115,000 -1% 2,128,000

Fashion Museum 146,000 +3% 141,000

Victoria Art Gallery 73,000 -15% 86,000

Total 2,334,000 -1% 2,355,000

Victoria Art Gallery Shop

A book published in conjunction with the James Tower exhibition at the Gallery sold 120 copies. The retail team developed a great range of products from fridge magnets to jewellery to support the Toulouse-Lautrec and Masters of Montmartre exhibition featured in an extended pop up shop at the Gallery.

Fashion Museum Shop

We have developed a branded range of products including fridge magnets, shopping pads and a pocket mirror featuring images from the collection. The packaging has been well thought through: it uses FSC card, is BPA free and the wrappings are made of corn-starch so are biodegradable.

A new guidebook for the Fashion Museum was published which has been well received by visitors and has been outselling our previous guide.

The sales productivity statistics for the busiest day/hour in July 2019 at the main Roman Baths shop show that our amazing Sales Team processed the sale in Epos, packed merchandise and answered questions all in good cheer for an average of 2.55 customers every MINUTE selling 2.5 items per sale with average spend of £12.38 – impressive!

Above: The Roman Baths souvenir coin Left: New rum and brandy ranges on sale at The Roman Baths shop

Illustrated book of posters accompanying Toulouse-Lautrec

and the Masters of Montmartre

Above: Souvenirs on sale at the Fashion Museum featuring

objects on display


Over the last year the Visitor Management System (VMS) has processed over £17.5 million of admissions with over £2.3 million online ticket sales. The Systems Team has worked with different areas of Heritage Services and third parties to support the development of new commercial opportunities. These included Carpe Noctem, a packaged visit to the Roman Baths with a glass of Champagne; Moulin Rouge and the Masters of Montmartre, a cinema and exhibition package.

The focus for the Systems Team has been the 12-month tender process for the Visitor Management System. This included site visits to assess the suppliers’ systems in use at the London Eye, National Postal Museum, London and Bournemouth Council’s Smugglers Cove Crazy Golf. The final decision was made with the selection of our current supplier, Gateway Ticketing Ltd.

The Assembly Rooms were £40k up on budget (14%) for this year, in most part due to the amount of filming which took place. The number of weddings at the Roman Baths and Pump Room increased by 30 this year, although the average venue hire spend per wedding was down by just under 5%.

Sunrise Weddings at the Roman Baths have proved increasingly popular with a total of 30 taking place, some at very short notice. Sunset Weddings continue to be buoyant and this trend is set to continue.

Filming was lucrative for the venues, with both Belgravia (currently being shown on ITV) and Bridgerton (coming soon) having scenes filmed in the Assembly Rooms. We also welcomed Wheel of Fortune to the Roman Baths for an early morning shoot for their ‘prize show reel’ which will be aired in the USA shortly.

At the Victoria Art Gallery, we were able to capitalise on the Toulouse Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre exhibition by combining a special evening view of the show with a private viewing of Moulin Rouge at the Little Theatre Cinema. This proved popular and we hope to be able to offer similar packages with other exhibitions in the future.

Business was impacted at the end of March and early April by COVID-19 and we expect this to continue into events through the summer before public confidence is restored.

Visitor Management System

Venue Hire

Wedding held at The Roman Baths: credit Amy Sanders

Easter Evenings performed really well with over 2,000 people (16% over forecast) visiting the Roman Baths after 5pm. The campaign generated 1,297,777 media impressions. Summer Lates at the Roman Baths was also successful. We ran our first TV campaign across Birmingham, Bristol and Gloucester. This generated 263% increase in online transactions from Birmingham and Bristol. Over the whole campaign, online revenue was up 76%+ while transactions were also up 64%. The Roman Baths Kids App which is free to download is now available in Chinese for our growing Chinese family audience. The marketing campaign for Glove Stories contributed to a strong year for the Fashion Museum in visitors. In May—August when the campaign was running, there was an average increase in visitors of 11.75% a month. Royal items continue to be popular. Our Queen Charlotte dress post for the Fashion Museum got nearly 25k reach and 157 shares on Facebook, with 885 users linking through to the news story. At Victoria Art Gallery, our Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition started off with impressive visitor numbers but was unfortunately cut short by COVID-19. Our campaign performed well with press coverage reaching 6.7m: two highlights being a review in The Telegraph and a photo on the Guardian website.

Marketing


News from the teams

This major development project at the Roman Baths is fundamentally a learning project, intended to create a fantastic new resource for use by visiting schools and local people. It does this by:

• Creating more local events, learning programmes and community activities.

• Developing stimulating new spaces for schools and groups.

• Transforming part of the Roman site into a hands-on archaeological investigation zone for school children.

• Converting old spa buildings into a new Clore Learning Centre.

• Revealing more of the Roman site to the public.

• Creating a new World Heritage Centre for the city of Bath.

In 2019-20 the project completed the following activities:

• The main building works started on site to transform the historic buildings into the Clore Learning Centre for the Roman Baths and a World Heritage Centre for the City of Bath.

• Conservation works were completed on the Victorian arch spanning York Street and the Victorian chimney in Swallow Street, including cleaning, repointing mortar and sealing metalwork.

• Conservation work was undertaken on the Roman monument in the areas that will be transformed for the public to enjoy. The Exercise Yard will be opened for public visitors and the Investigation Zone will be a hands-on learning space for schoolchildren and learning groups.

• Conservators consolidated the large pieces of Roman ceramic building materials (originally roof tiles) and safely moved them into storage.

• Progress was made in developing content for the World Heritage Centre and staff uniforms.

• At the very end of the year a new Community Engagement Officer was appointed and began work

Preparatory works on site have been completed to take heat from the King’s Spring to serve the Roman Baths, Pump Room, the new World Heritage Centre for Bath and the new Clore Learning Centre. This replaces a much smaller scheme installed in 1993, and will reduce the carbon footprint of the complex of buildings significantly.

The Collections team upgraded the Collections Management Database, Micromusée, to the latest version and have been busy recording objects, with 3799 new records and 6261 updated records this year. The team is heavily involved in supporting the Archway project. It has supplied digital content to the Roman Baths website and supported the training needs of Front of House and Learning staff. It also worked on a series of new temporary displays in the Sun Lounge, An Alphabet of Objects, which explores collection objects through letters of the alphabet, and put on two small displays in the One Stop shop in Keynsham. A major collections move of Roman stonework to Keynsham took place in advance of re-development works at the Roman Baths site. The team also supported a three year research project with Bournemouth University investigating a new scientific approach to the study of Roman ceramic and stone building materials. Throughout the winter months, bimonthly cleaning and maintenance sessions of the archaeology and displays have been conducted alongside ongoing environmental monitoring of the monument.

The Archway Project

The Roman Baths Collections Team

The Roman Baths —Energy Capture Project

on developing community programmes and recruiting volunteers ready for when the Clore Learning Centre and the new World Heritage Centre open.

Investigating Keynsham display Learning at the Roman Baths


Our current grant-funded project Building a Healthier City is enabling researchers to discover how the health of people in Bath was improved from the 1700s to the 1900s, through the introduction of amenities such as paved streets, lighting, safe drinking water, sewerage and rubbish disposal as well as the building of the Pump Room. The project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, will be complete by the end of 2020. Archivists are cataloguing 72 metres of unique documents while a conservator is repairing and re-packaging them. At the end of the two-year project, new information about the collections will be available through online catalogues and they will be preserved for researchers to use for years to come. The Record Office was awarded another grant from the Wellcome Trust of £169,000 to catalogue and conserve records relating to slum clearance and council housing. The project will run from 2020-2022 and will further increase accessibility to our collections. In September the Record Office received a visit from Jeff James, Keeper of The National Archives. The team has also been working on a number of other initiatives and projects including a digital records audit and scoping for a potential digital asset management system; cataloguing the Local Studies rare books and special presses collections; re-locating Local Studies collections to the Guildhall; improving storage for our extensive maps and plans collections.

The long-anticipated World Heritage Centre is under construction with work underway on interpretation and display material. The aim is to succinctly explain the genius of historic Bath, then encourage people to go out to explore it. The Centre will open in 2021.

Finally the World Heritage Enhancement Fund won a national Georgian Group Award in 2019 for the programme of historic street sign renovations. This 10 year programme continues with over 50 signs row restored.

Bath Record Office

Bath in Time

The World Heritage Site

Bath Film Office

Bath in Time increased its presence on social media this year and started to look at new ways to develop the website. This year’s revenue total: £8,729.98

The revenue is from prints bought via the website for personal use and digital images purchased for commercial purposes.

The Film Office had a busy year with a major new period drama Bridgerton being filmed in Bath for Netflix. The show is expected to be broadcast later in 2020.

Two feature length episodes of McDonald & Dodds, a new detective series, were also filmed in Bath and shown on ITV in March 2020. The opening ballroom sequence of Belgravia, another new ITV series, was filmed at the Assembly Rooms. World Heritage Day has been celebrated in Bath every

April since 2009. In 2019 a rare indoor event on the theme of architecture and engineering excellence was staged at Green Park Station. The range of talks, walks and stalls was well attended and provided a great opportunity to connect with local audiences. In September 2019, UNESCO-appointed inspectors visited Bath to assess the Great Spas of Europe World Heritage bid. Thanks to excellent contributions from all local partners they left with good impressions and will report back to the annual UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Following postponement of the June 2020 Committee in China we await news on when that will be. Bath World Heritage Site has agreed to be a pilot project for the Lottery funded Youth Ambassadors Programme. Heritage is used to engage teenagers in informal learning in this two year project, which if successful, could be rolled out nationally.

Building a Healthier City records held at Bath Record Office

Filming Belgravia at the Assembly Rooms


Endangered and Extinct: Creative recycling, Val Hunt

23 February – 7 May 2019

Artist Val Hunt created colourful sculptures of flora and

fauna out of recycled materials. The popular exhibition

raised awareness of endangered and extinct creatures.

Annual Open Exhibition: Bath Society of Artists

18 May – 29 June 2019

The exhibition proved as popular as ever with paintings

and sculptures by the region’s best artistic talent. 101

exhibits were sold during the show.

War and Rumours of War

6 July – 15 September 2019

This thought-provoking exhibition featured artworks

produced before, during and after the war which

responded to a decade of anxiety, austerity and

idealism .

Bernard Ollis: A Tale of Two Cities

6 July – 15 September 2019

These colourful paintings of Bath and Paris re-imagined

the cities in unexpected and delightful ways.

James Tower: a Centenary Celebration 21 September – 24 November 2019

James Tower was one of Britain’s most important 20th-

century studio potters. This exhibition showcased the

best of his work, and those pieces that inspired him,

including six objects by Picasso.

Sally Muir: The Dog Show

30 November 2019 - 9 February 2020

Sally Muir has drawn dogs all her life and this show

celebrated her love of them with portraits of dogs using

many adventurous materials.

Peter Brown:

Bath Is It

30 November 2019 -

2 February 2020

More than 100

paintings by the ever-

popular Bath artist

‘Pete the Street’ were

displayed, including some well-loved Bath locations. The

show was very successful and 45 paintings were sold.

Richard Twose: Experiments with Flying

21 September – 24 November 2019

Acrobats, birds and animals featured in these paintings

and prints that conveyed continuous motion.

Toulouse-Lautrec and the Masters of Montmartre

15 February 2020 – 18 March 2020

Bringing the sights and sounds of Bohemian Paris to

modern-day Bath this exhibition featured over 80 iconic

colour posters by Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha,

Pierre Bonnard and others.

The Roman Baths

The Roman Baths continued the display, An A-Z of Collections in the Sun Lounge showcasing the weird and wonderful objects in its care. At Keynsham One Stop Shop the display, Investigating Keynsham showcased the variety of objects that have been found in recent excavations. The Adorning Keynsham display highlighted medieval decorative techniques, from Keynsham Abbey’s delicate carvings to fragments of stained glass.

Exhibitions Fashion Museum

Glove Stories 2 March 2019 – 1 March 2020 One of the best collections of gloves in the world, on loan to the Fashion Museum from the Worshipful Company of Glovers of London, went on display on 2 March 2019. Woven throughout A History of Fashion in 100 Objects, visitors were able to see exquisite examples of historical gloves from the past 400 years; many of which had never been displayed to the public before. Collection Stories A new display, Collection Stories, opened in May 2019 shining a light on the outstanding collection of historical fashions. It also showcases a special space for regularly changing displays called Fashion Focus. The first of these opened in May. Titled Little and Large, it highlighted the Museum’s collection of historic fashion dolls displayed alongside beautiful life size fashions from the same historical period. Dress of the Year 2019

Donna Wallace, Fashion and

Accessories Editor at British

Vogue, selected a pleated pink

tulle dress by Giambattista Valli

for H&M. The dress is now on

display, becoming the ‘grand

finale’ exhibit and 100th object in

the Museum’s headline exhibition A History of Fashion

in 100 Objects.


Sharmanka Travelling Circus


This mechanical theatre brought magical performances

featuring objects incorporating scrap metal and carved

figures moving in time to a music and light show.

Louise Bourgeois Prints


This Hayward Touring print exhibition was by one of the

most important and influential artists of the 20th century.


Acquisitions The Roman Baths

Victoria Art Gallery • Two works by James Tower (1919-88): Rectangular

Dish, 1979 and Sketch of Tall Tree Form, 1965, donated by Theresa Hallgarten and Nick Tower.

• An oil of Broad Quay, Bath in 1929 by J. T. Whitaker, donated by Harriet Oldridge.

• Five watercolours by Peter Potworowski (1898-1962) of Corsham Court and Italian subjects executed in the mid-1950s, purchased with the aid of the ACE/V&A Purchase Grant Fund and Friends of the Victoria Art Gallery.

Bath Record Office • 18

th century deeds for property in James Street, Bath

and Batheaston.

• Records of the Royal Bath & West of England Society.

• Records of Hay Hill Baptist Church and Walcot Methodist Church.

• Bath Federation of Townswomen’s Guilds and Bath Ramblers Club.

• Records of Bath Arts Workshop including material

from Bath Printshop (1970s).

• Medallion (cased) commemorating 50 years of the Pastorate of Rev. William Jay at Argyle Street Congregational Chapel.

106 new objects were accessioned to the Fashion Museum Collection between April 2019 and March 2020. These are some of the new pieces:

• 1978 – Summer dress by Dress of the Year 1978 designer Gordon Luke Clarke.

• An ensemble by Etro worn by Sir Roy Strong for an interview with Lucy Worsley When Lucy Met Roy on BBC Four.

• A pair of Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche Shoes.

• Fashions from the 1960s and 1970s, including pieces by brands Mary Quant and Biba.

• 1960s purple printed playsuit from the iconic Bus Stop boutique by Lee Bender.

• 10 garments of traditional Yemeni design ca.1980s.

Fashion Museum

• 14 archaeological archives from Avon Archaeology.

• A small group of local history items and a small disc, possibly used for keys, in the Roman Baths.

James Tower, Rectangular Dish,

1979.


Loans

• The Museum loaned nine ensembles and three hats to the record-breaking Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams. 595,000 visitors saw this exhibition which ran February to September 2019.

• Gloves associated with Queen Elizabeth I, King James I, King Charles I, Queen Victoria and the original Coronation Glove worn by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II were loaned to the Bendigo Art Gallery in Australia for their exhibition Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits.

• 26 pieces were lent to the Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition Mary Quant, including one minidress worn by leading New Brutalist Architect Alison Smithson. After being displayed in V&A London, the exhibition travelled on to V&A Dundee.

• Three rare birds prepared for millinery were borrowed by the Natural History Museum of Denmark as part of the award-winning Fashioned from Nature exhibition, previously on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

• A rare 18th-century fashion doll travelled to New York

to be displayed at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT) exhibition Paris, Capital of Fashion.

• Selected garments from the wardrobe collections of ballerinas Margot Fonteyn and Alicia Markova were also lent to MFIT for their Ballerina: Fashion’s Modern Muse exhibition which opened in February 2020.

• A Bill Gibb hand-printed silk kimono from 1977, the same style once worn by Bianca Jagger, for Kimono at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

• A pair of gloves associated with the famous Moulin Rouge singer and dancer Mistinguett for Toulouse-Lautrec at Victoria Art Gallery .

• Two Helmut Lang ensembles for Off: Austrian Fashion Design at the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna.

• Hats worn by Lady Ottoline Morrell for Let’s Misbehave at Blenheim Palace.

• The portrait of William Herschel by Lemuel Francis Abbot was lent to No. 1 Royal Crescent for the exhibition Image Control.

• Howard Hodgkin’s Silence, was sent to the Kistefos Museum and Sculpture Park in Norway for the exhibition Hodgkin and Creed: Inside Out.

• Chippenham Museum’s exhibition Strange and Wonderful Beings: The Work of Clifford and Rosemary Ellis received a loan of 28 artworks from the Ellis Family Archive.

• Various artworks from the teaching staff of Bath Academy of Art were also lent to this exhibition at Chippenham Museum.

• Three paintings travelled to the Cooper Gallery,

Fashion Museum

Bath Record Office


Barnsley for their exhibition Venice, Paradise of Cities: Gertrude Crompton’s Regatta on the Grand Canal Venice and Santa Maria della Salute; Joseph Southall’s San Giorgio Venice.

• The River Bank (Ophelia) by David Inshaw was lent to Southampton Art Gallery and Russell Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth for the exhibition Beyond Brotherhood: The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy, until 21 June 2020.

• The Ellis Family Collection was lent to Chippenham Museum’s exhibition Strange and Wonderful Beings: The Work of Clifford and Rosemary Ellis.

• A bronze ingot from the Ellis Collection was sent on long-term loan to Chippenham Museum.

• The Echo Catch by William Herschel, a bound music collection, was lent to Herschel Museum of Astronomy.

The Roman Baths

The replica of Bag Four of the Beau Street Hoard was sent to the British Museum for the touring exhibition: Hoards: a Hidden History of Ancient Britain.

Queen Elizabeth I glove, courtesy of Dents


Mike Marsh was appointed as Facilities Manager in September 2019 as successor to Iain Johnston. We said farewell to Wendy Niles, who retired after almost 20 years’ service in the Business Analysis team. Lucinda Dixon moved on to another role within B&NES and we welcomed Hayley Barker and Lucille Liric. Maisie Hillier, one of the Function Managers for Bath’s Historic Venues, left in December 2019 to take up a new position managing events with Greenwich Museums. After 10 years as Business Support Officer Caroline Lavington left in December 2019 and was replaced in February by Kate Major. Vivien Hynes retired in March 2019 after 10 years working as Administrator at the Fashion Museum and Assembly Rooms. Bath Record Office welcomed Veronica Howe as part-time Collections Manager (Archives) and Holly Trant in the new role of part-time Assistant Local Studies Librarian. Laura Nicholls joined as Community Engagement Officer in March 2020. She will be working with local communities and looking to recruit volunteers to the World Heritage Centre. After over 40 years of wonderful service working for the Council we said goodbye to our Commercial Support Officer Angela Payne who took early retirement. We welcomed Elizabeth Rawling as our new Commercial Support Officer. Clare Langrishe was appointed in August to cover the Heritage Marketing Manager position while Rebecca Clay went on maternity leave. Sophie Woodward completed British Sign Language Level 1 and is working towards Level 2 and Olivia Richards is working towards Level 1. The whole Retail Sales Team successfully completed the Sales through Service training programme which was created especially for Heritage Services and has led to greater confidence for the team in engaging with customers and helping them to get the most out of their shopping experience.

Bath Film Office

t. 01225 477711 e. [email protected] w. bathfilmoffice.co.uk f. facebook.com/BathFilmOffice tw @BathFilmOffice

Bath Record Office

t. 01225 477421 e. [email protected] / [email protected] w. batharchives.co.uk f: facebook.com/bathnesBRO tw @bathnesbro

Fashion Museum

t. 01225 477789 e. [email protected] w. fashionmuseum.co.uk f. facebook.com/fashionmuseum tw. @Fashion_Museum

The Roman Baths

t.01225 477785 e. [email protected] w.romanbaths.co.uk f. facebook.com/theromanbaths tw. @RomanBathsBath ig: @theromanbaths


t. 01225 477233 e. [email protected] w. victoriagal.org.uk f. facebook.com/victoriaartgallery tw. @VictoriaArtBath

City of Bath World Heritage Site t.01225 477584 e. [email protected] w.bathworldheritage.org.uk f. facebook.com/bathworldheritagesite tw. @BathWHS

Staff News Contact Details

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1. Queen Elizabeth I glove, courtesy of Dents 3. Bath’s Historic Venues won Gold for Business Events Venue of the Year for the Assembly Rooms, and Bronze for Wedding Venue of the Year for The Roman Baths 4. Family activities at The Roman Baths 5. ITV’s McDonald and Dodds was filmed in Bath 6. Kendall Jenner wears Giambattista Valli for H&M; this design was chosen as the Fashion Museum’s Dress of the Year 2019 7. Filming for Summer Evenings Skycast advert at The Roman Baths 8. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Jane Avril, 1899 Photo © Musée d'Ixelles-Bruxelles / Courtesy of Institut für Kulturaustausch, Tübingen 9. Easter Evenings 2019, The Roman Baths 10. Nicolas Poussin, The Triumph of Pan © The National Gallery, London 11. The Deathly Secrets of Sydney Gardens event held as part of the Festival of British Archaeology 12. Dressing up at the Fashion Museum 13. Royal Gloves display as part of Glove Stories at the Fashion Museum 14. Bath Record Office 15. Making Merry with Merels event held at The Roman Baths 16. Toulouse-Lautrec in the Upper Gallery, Victoria Art Gallery. Exhibition created in partnership with Bath Carers Centre.

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