Bath Assembly Rooms are temporarily closed as work continues on the ambitious plans to breathe new life into this historic building. Conservation and construction work is well underway to transform the building for a new Georgian visitor experience and a place for 21st-century assembly.
Closed since March 2025, the 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.
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.
The floors have come up in the Tea Room and Ball Room ready to be replaced with new oak floors as they would have been when first built. Whilst the windows get upgraded with triple glazing, the bars are being replaced to return the traditional Georgian aesthetic to the exterior of the building. 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.
The ten original Georgian chandeliers have been taken down and are in a conservation studio having some much needed TLC before they return to the Assembly Rooms and other objects such as the Root Benches and Messel mirrors are being assessed and a plan put into place for how they can be looked after for years to come.
Now nearly at the half-way point in the construction work of this ambitious project, I’m really excited to see certain areas of the Assembly Rooms coming back together. Having recently installed scaffolding in the Tea Room, it won’t be long until the windows are reinstated and new paint is added to the walls. This will be a big milestone in the project, and we’ll start to see that sense of Georgian splendour that we’re bringing back to Bath Assembly Rooms.
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 a set of 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 18th 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.
We’re uncovering the history of the Rooms and the people who were working, living in or visiting Bath in the 18th century to build this experience. Our characters will bring the ball to life as you see them appear throughout the building and understand their lives, work, opportunities, fears and fortunes. Visitors will get a sense of every aspect from the grit to the glamour.
As a place designed for entertaining, unlike many historic homes in the care of the National Trust, Bath Assembly Rooms has very few historic objects. However, the ones that we do have, will be conserved and restored whilst they are offsite.
The ten original Georgian chandeliers have been taken down and are in a conservation studio having some much needed TLC before they return to the Assembly Rooms. Four oval mirrors, designed by Oliver Messel, that hung in the Little Octagon, are off to be gilded. Other objects such as the Root Benches and the twenty Messel lanterns are being assessed and a plan put into place for how they can be looked after for years to come.
Discover the significance of the ten Georgian chandeliers that light Bath Assembly Rooms and hear about the conservation that is planned and the role they'll play in the new visitor experience. This video shares interviews from when the chandeliers were being dismantled ahead of project works commencing.
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The National Trust has owned Bath Assembly Rooms since 1931 and in March 2023 we took on its day to day management, welcoming in as many people as we could. Helping us to test ideas and learn about the property as plans got underway to create a new Georgian experience. In February 2025, we closed the doors to enable the restoration work to begin.
Part of the renovations include improvements to reduce the buildings reliance on fossil fuels. A new sub-station was installed in late 2025, freeing up capacity for surrounding residents and businesses on the local electricity supply and enabling us to remove the old and inefficient gas boilers. The new substation will be connected to air source heat pumps which will power the new heating system in the building - switching us off gas and reducing the carbon emissions of the Grade 1 listed property.
Some of the windows are being replaced and fitted with triple glazing, whilst others will have draft excluders added to improve heat retention.
We want everyone to feel welcome at Bath Assembly Rooms.
We’ll be installing 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’.
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 fundraising campaign launched in February 2025, inviting 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.
Help with conservation of the historic Assembly Rooms and plans for the future Georgian experience.
Could help us keep the chandeliers clean
Running alongside the construction project work, is ‘Reconnecting the Rooms’. Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and made possible thanks to National Lottery players, this project aims to bring people together to share the history of Bath Assembly Rooms.
Demonstrating the relevance of the history to today and helping to shape the future use of this historic space, it aims to reduce loneliness, improve connection with the city’s heritage and widen skills development opportunities.
‘Reconnecting the Rooms’ will use social histories and exciting new research as the basis to inspire new perspectives on the Rooms.
We’ll be taking the history and stories out to the communities in and around Bath through ‘Rooms on the Road’ – a series of workshops with community groups where people can learn and reflect on what the residents of Georgian Bath experienced during a visit.
We’ll explore how communities today might like to use the Assembly Rooms, so it is truly reflective of its original ethos and the people it serves when it reopens.
June 2026
There's now a completed birdcage in the Tea Room. The scaffolding covers the 13m high room, but as it's all freestanding it's called a birdcage. Work will now begin to reinstate the windows, rewire the room and finally paint the ceilings and walls.
Explore the objects and works of art we care for at the Assembly Rooms on the National Trust Collections website.
The Luminaries is just one way to give support to Bath Assembly Rooms. By joining you'll receive exclusive updates and benefits.
Read more about 'Reconnecting the Rooms' a project funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, which aims to bring people together in new ways. Discovering untold stories of the people of Georgian Bath and connecting communities today with its heritage.
From springheads and stone markers to Iron Age field systems, learn about the archaeological remains found at the Bath Skyline. Find out how the area was used by the people that lived here.
Discover how Ralph Allen may have worked with the great Capability Brown to transform his formal Georgian garden to a more natural style, with the Palladian Bridge.
There is history of occupation at Dyrham Park from ancient times. Find out about the people and families who have added their stories to Dyrham Park.
