From the Romans to the Georgians and on to the 20th century, Bath’s museums and galleries take you on a journey through thousands of years of the city’s history. They feature both the world-class artists and authors who made the city their home, but also the stories of ordinary people.
We’ve picked 11 of the best museums in Bath for your next visit. From Jane Austen to East Asian Art, industrial heritage to astronomy, there’s something for everyone. And at the end there are suggestions for the top Bath museums if you’re on a budget, for families and for dog owners.
Map of museums in Bath
The Roman Baths
Travel back in time to the Roman town of Aquae Sulis at Bath’s most famous tourist attraction – The Roman Baths. The baths were built between 60–70 AD as part of a temple dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva, and were used by the Romans until they left Britain in the 5th century.
Visitors can explore the Great Bath, with its bright green hot pools inside an ornate 18th-century building. There’s also the Sacred Spring, temple remains and the Bath House’s different hot and cold chambers. Roman characters projected onto the walls and actors bring the Roman era to life.
The museum has a range of exhibits from the Roman period, from coins and curse tablets (to complain about your enemies) to a golden head of Sulis Minerva. There’s a self-guided audio tour to explain what you’re seeing, with versions for kids and with travel writer Bill Bryson. And if you visit in winter, the Great Bath is lit by flaming torches after dark to make it extra magical.
The Roman Baths are open daily 9am–6pm, with extended hours at Easter and in the summer. Standard entry costs £21.50 adults/£20.50 concessions/£14 children aged 6–18, with discounts on weekdays and higher prices at peak times. Pre-booking advised.
No 1 Royal Crescent
No 1 Royal Crescent is another journey back through Bath’s history, this time to the end of the 18th century. This restored Georgian townhouse on Bath’s most famous street has been decorated and furnished as it would have been between 1776–1796. Fans of the TV series Bridgerton might recognise the exteriors too, as they featured as the Featherington family home.
A self-guided tour takes you through the house, with pictures and mirrors coming to life to tell the story of a wealthy family living in Bath for a season. You see the beautiful antique-filled drawing and dining rooms where Bath’s fashionable society would have been entertained. And also hear from the cooks and housekeepers working hard below stairs to keep everything running smoothly.
No 1 Royal Crescent is open 10am–5.30pm Tuesday to Sunday (closed most of January). Entry costs £15.50 adults/£13.50 concessions/free for under 18s. Pre-booking advised.
The Jane Austen Centre
The Jane Austen Centre celebrates Bath’s most famous resident, who lived in the city from 1801–1806 and set her novels Persuasion and Northanger Abbey here. The Centre takes you through Jane Austen’s life in Bath and beyond. It starts with an introduction from one of their costumed character guides who explains how living in Bath influenced Jane Austen’s life and work.
Then you head downstairs into the exhibition, which includes costumes from Austen’s era, photos from film adaptations of her work and a lifelike life-sized waxwork of Jane herself. You can dress up in Regency-style bonnets and dresses or try out writing with a quill and ink. And there’s a Regency Tea Room on the top floor if you fancy treating yourself to a traditional afternoon tea.
The Jane Austen Centre is open daily 9.45am–6pm in summer, with shorter hours in winter. Entry costs £15.95 adults/£14.75 seniors/£9.50 children aged 6–16 if bought online.
Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein
Almost next door to The Jane Austen Centre is another museum dedicated to a female author, but it couldn’t be more different. Mary Shelley lived in Bath while she wrote her famous science fiction novel Frankenstein in 1816, and Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein tells her story.
This immersive museum is decorated in a dark and moody Gothic style, and takes you through Mary’s Shelley’s often tragic life and the writing of Frankenstein across four floors. It features an eight-foot-tall reconstruction of the monster, based on Shelley’s original description.
The top floor shows how the character was later brought to life in films and TV series, becoming the cartoon green-skinned creature we know now. Then if you’re feeling brave you can venture into the dark and spooky basement. Or add on one of their two escape room experiences.
Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein is open daily 11am–4pm, with extended hours at weekends and holidays. Entry costs £15.50 adults/£12.80 concessions/£12.50 children aged 15 and under.
The Holburne Museum
The Holburne Museum is Bath’s first public art gallery, showcasing fine and decorative art in a grand Grade I-listed building on the edge of Sydney Gardens. It was built in 1799 as the Sydney Hotel before opening as a museum in 1916. The Holburne is another Bridgerton filming location as Lady Danbury’s townhouse, and also featured in movies The Duchess and Vanity Fair.
At the heart of the museum is a collection of over 4000 17th- and 18th-century paintings, sculptures, silverware and porcelain amassed by Sir William Holburne during his lifetime. After he died he left his collection to the City of Bath and it’s been added to ever since, with over 9000 items today.
Highlights of the collection include paintings by Gainsborough, Turner and Stubbs, 18th-century majolica and Dutch porcelain. There’s also a changing series of temporary exhibitions. And a modern glass extension houses a café with a terrace opening onto Sydney Gardens.
The Holburne Museum is open daily 10am–5pm (11am–5pm on Sundays and bank holidays). Entry costs £11 adults/£7 concessions/free for under 18s.
Victoria Art Gallery
Victoria Art Gallery is Bath’s public art museum, which opened in 1900 and is named after Queen Victoria. It has a collection of over 1500 paintings, sculptures and decorative arts from the 15th century to the present day. They including paintings by Thomas Gainsborough and Walter Sickert who lived in Bath, and works by artists at the Bath Academy of Art in the 1950s and 60s.
The permanent collection in the Upper Gallery is free to visit – though it’s currently closed for conservation work until spring 2025. And the large downstairs gallery is used for temporary exhibitions, recently featuring Toulouse-Lautrec and the Bath Society of Artists.
Victoria Art Gallery is open 10.30am–5pm Tuesday to Sunday. Free entry to the permanent collection. Temporary exhibitions cost £7 adults/£6.50 concessions/£2.50 children aged 6–18.
Herschel Museum of Astronomy
Tucked away on a quiet street in the west of Bath is the house where the Planet Uranus was discovered in 1781. It was the home of William Herschel and his sister Caroline, who were both talented astronomers and musicians, and now houses the Herschel Museum of Astronomy.
The Georgian townhouse has been furnished as it would’ve been in the 1780s, with the Herschels’ telescopes and globes. There’s also a basement workshop where William made his own lenses. An audio tour takes you through their lives and work – with William made King’s Astronomer by King George III and Caroline the first woman awarded a Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal.
The Herschel Museum of Astronomy is open 10am–5pm Tuesday to Sunday (closed January). Entry costs £12 adults/£10.50 concessions/free for under 18s.
Museum of Bath at Work
In contrast to museums focusing on the famous names who lived in Bath, the Museum of Bath at Work is all about the life and work of regular local people. It’s a treasure trove of social and industrial history, highlighting the different industries which helped Bath grow over the last 2000 years. The building has its own interesting history too, built in 1777 as a real tennis court.
The museum began as a recreation of the Victorian Bowler soft drinks factory, with the whole factory carefully rebuilt here after it closed. Since then other shops and trades have been added, including an Edwardian ironmonger’s, Bath stone mine and 1914 vintage car made by the Horstmann Car Company of Bath. An audio guide, machine demos and guided tours help bring it all to life.
The Museum of Bath at Work is open 10.30am–5pm April to November (closed December/January and weekends only February/March). Entry costs £10 adults/£7.50 concessions/£5 children.
Museum of Bath Architecture
The recently reopened Museum of Bath Architecture shows how Bath was transformed from a small medieval walled town to a fashionable Georgian spa city. The museum is located inside the Countess of Huntingdon’s Chapel, a Gothic-style Methodist Chapel which was built in 1765.
Inside there’s a mix of maps, models and architectural drawings on display. They include a 1:500 scale model of Bath, which gives you a bird’s eye view of how the city developed over time. You can also see the tools and techniques that 18th-century architects and craftsmen used to transform the city. And discover how classical motifs were used to create Bath’s distinctive style.
The Museum of Bath Architecture is open 10am–4pm Wednesday to Saturday until 15 December (reopening TBC). Entry costs £7 adults/£6 concessions/free for under 18s.
Museum of East Asian Art
Bath’s Museum of East Asian Art is the only museum in the UK dedicated to the arts and culture of East and South East Asia. This Georgian townhouse on the edge of The Circus contains over 2000 artefacts from China, Japan, Korea and South East Asia, which span over 7000 years.
The museum was founded by Brian McElney OBE, a longtime resident of Hong Kong who began collecting Chinese artworks in 1955 and amassed an impressive collection which he later donated. Among the exhibits are jades, bronzes, ceramics, lacquerware and intricate bamboo and wood carvings. And the ground floor houses changing exhibitions inspired by items in the museum.
The Museum of East Asian Art is open 10.30am–5pm Tuesday to Saturday (closed January–March 2025 for refurbishment). Entry costs £7.50 adults/£6.50 seniors/free for under 18s.
American Museum & Gardens
Just outside the city in Claverton Manor you’ll find the Bath American Museum & Gardens. It’s one of the biggest collections of American artefacts outside the country. It uses furniture, quilts and folk art to tell the story of 2000 years of the USA. There are also 125 acres of gardens with stunning views to explore, which include an arboretum, wilderness trails and a children’s garden.
Temporary exhibitions cover everything from LEGO and dinosaurs to 1930s fashion and Native American dress. There are also weekly pop-up talks on different subjects relating to American history and culture. And an American Garden Deli and terrace serving tasty US treats.
The American Museum & Gardens is open 10am–5pm Tuesday to Sunday (plus Mondays in summer). Entry costs £16.50 adults/£8.25 students/£9.50 children aged 5–17.
Bonus Bath museums
As well as our pick of the top museums in Bath, there are a couple of extras you might want to add on if you have time. Bath World Heritage Centre is a free museum near the Roman Baths which gives you an introduction to the city and ideas of what to see. And there’s a small museum below Sally Lunn’s café which features its original kitchen (entry 30p or free if you buy food).
One of Bath’s most popular museums, the Fashion Museum in the Assembly Rooms, closed in 2022. But there are plans for it to be reopened in the city’s Old Post Office by 2030.
Which are the best museums in Bath…
On a budget? It’s normally free to visit the permanent collections on the upper floor of the Victoria Art Gallery, though they’re currently closed for refurbishment. The Holburne Museum also has free entry to their Collection galleries on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm.
You can also visit the Museum of Bath at Work, Herschel Museum of Astronomy, Museum of East Asian Art, Holburne Museum and Museum of Bath Architecture for around £10 per adult.
If you’re planning more than one visit to Bath, your ticket for No 1 Royal Crescent and the Herschel Museum of Astronomy is valid for a year for no extra cost. And if you can make your ticket to the Museum of Bath at Work a Gift Aid donation you’ll also get admission for a year.
For families? If you’re visiting Bath with kids, The Roman Baths has a special child-friendly audio guide and family trail. The Holburne Museum includes kids’ activity drawers and trails, plus the ‘Space to Make’ creative area. The American Museum has a children’s garden and play area, as well as craft activities at weekends and in holidays. And kids can dress up at No 1 Royal Crescent.
Or Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein is great for older teenagers, with its two escape rooms.
For dog owners? Dogs are welcome on the ground floor and café at the Holburne Museum. And dogs on leads can visit the gardens (but not the museum) at the American Museum.
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