Conservation & Heritage Issue 50 Winter 2025/Spring 2026 - Flipbook - Page 98
Extending a Dialogue:
Eric Parry Architects and
the Holburne Museum
Two projects at Bath’s Grade I listed museum show how contemporary design can serve
conservation through incremental change
The Holburne Museum, at the head of Great Pulteney Street
in Bath, has always stood as both threshold and terminus.
Originally built in 1799 as the Sydney Hotel, the building
marked the point at which the urban rigour of Bath’s
Georgian terraces gave way to the cultivated landscape of
Sydney Gardens beyond (Holburne Museum, n.d.) Two
centuries later, that same dialogue between city, architecture
and landscape remains the foundation for its continued
adaptation as one of Bath’s cultural landmarks.
gallery space without compromising the building’s Grade I
listing or its relationship to the Georgian city.
The extension sits between the historic building and the
museum’s gardens, re-establishing the building’s axial
relationship with Sydney Gardens—a gesture both spatial and
symbolic.
Reflecting on the building’s original role as a gateway to
the historic Victorian pleasure gardens beyond, Edwin
Heathcote, Architecture and Design Critic for the Financial
Times said: “the rear extension of glass and shimmering
ceramic…brings the colours of the sky and the landscape into
the very expression of the façade.” (Edwin Heathcote, 2015)
Over fifteen years, Eric Parry Architects has twice expanded
this Grade I listed building’s capacity—first through a
celebrated 800-square-metre extension in 2011, and most
recently through a extensive retrofit project creating new
galleries within existing spaces (Eric Parry Architects, 2025).
Together, these projects demonstrate that heritage buildings
can evolve to meet contemporary needs through sensitive
intervention and adaptive reuse.
The successful outcome of the project validated our design
approach. After completion, visitor numbers quadrupled.
The project won RIBA South West Building of the Year
in 2012, proving that contemporary architecture within a
World Heritage Site can enhance rather than compromise
heritage values, and that investment in historic buildings can
drive measurable public engagement. As Edwin Heathcote
earlier noted, the project transformed “a cluttered house into
a real museum.” (Edwin Heathcote, 2011).
The 2011 Project: Extension Within a World Heritage Site
In 2011 the practice comprehensively refurbished Charles
Harcourt Masters’ original (yet much adapted) 1795 building
whilst adding a three-storey extension in glass and glazed
terracotta to the rear. Working within Bath’s UNESCO
World Heritage Site, the design needed to add substantial
Below, external view of Holburne Museum
photography by Dirk Lindner for Eric Parry Architects
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