Set at the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the city of Bath, The Roman Baths and Pump Room is a site of international historical and archaeological significance, and attracts over one million visitors each year.

However, dedicated learning space was limited to a single room set in the most congested part of the museum. Our scheme provides a new Clore Learning Centre and publicly accessible Bath World Heritage Centre within a neighbouring group of nineteenth-century buildings. These new spaces connect to The Roman Baths through a vaulted undercroft beneath the street at the Roman ground level. 

Built as a laundry, boilerhouse and warehouse to service the Victorian spa, the buildings were in need of significant investment and a new public-facing role.

The scheme unlocks the historic spaces by navigating changes in level between three different buildings and across a complex archaeological site. Two generous learning spaces are recovered from the shells of the nineteenth-century fabric, and supported by the essential ancillary functions previously lacking : a generous cloakroom, dedicated WCs, offices and a lunchroom.

Beneath the city streets, meticulously planned, ramped walkways navigate a way across and through standing archaeology in a part of the site that has been opened to public access for the first time. Part of the undercroft provides a third learning space where, immersed in Bath’s archaeological and historical past, children can try archaeology for themselves.