October 30th this year will mark the end of an era for Bath’s world-famous Fashion Museum when the doors will close on its home in the basement of the Assembly Rooms where it has been since May 1963.
The National Trust has other plans for its heritage Grade 1 listed building – constructed to facilitate the social gatherings of the city’s Georgian visitors – so the huge dress collection will have to go into storage while design and funding details are worked out for its new home which – it has been announced – will be in Bath’s old Post Office building alongside St Michaels Church.
The museum’s very last ‘special’ exhibition at the Rooms is now underway and it is a show with a difference.
While, over the years, curators have chosen the displays, this time it was turned over to the local community to design a show that would feature items of their own choice and ones that had special meaning for them.
I went up to chat with the Museum’s Manager, Rosemary Harden; and to meet the exhibition curator, Fleur Johnson.
The ‘Your Choose’ Exhibition – and indeed the rest of the collection on display – is open to the public until the end of October. More info www.fashionmuseum.co.uk
