Annual Review 2016/17

For learning, inspiration and enjoyment

Heritage Services

Introduction

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2016/17 was another exceptionally busy year for Heritage Services. The marketing strategy in the five-year business plan to promote the shoulder months has resulted in record off-season attendances at the Roman Baths and, as a result, all-time high annual visitor numbers. 11% of these were Mandarin speakers, a result of sustained marketing to China in partnership with Visit Britain.

At the Fashion Museum, the exquisite exhibition A History of Fashion in 100 Objects showcasing stunning items from the museum collection has proved popular, leading to a rise in visitor numbers on the previous year. This effect was further enhanced with the opening of Lace in Fashion in February 2017, while another top quality exhibition programme at the Victoria Art Gallery has kept visitor numbers above the 150,000 mark. Loans from the Victoria Art Gallery and the Fashion Museum to major exhibitions elsewhere attest the importance of the collections we hold in trust for the public and promote our museums to national and international audiences.

The award of £3.375 million by the Heritage Lottery Fund was a major step towards realising the Archway Project, of which more can be found on p.15 below. Community engagement across the Service has been as strong as ever with inspiring public activities organised for World Heritage Day, Museums at Night, Festival of Archaeology, British Science Week, national Heritage Open Days and our own Museums Week.

The Roman Baths’ visitor experience has been further enhanced with improved lighting and new interpretation in the East Baths. Other significant projects completed during the year included Bath Record Office’s HLF-funded community outreach work with the Riverside Youth Hub and the Black Families Educational Support Group, and the submission to Government of the World Heritage Site Management Plan 2016-2022. These two projects, along with many others, have typified the local-to-global span of work undertaken through our services during the year.

Stephen Bird, Head of Heritage Services

Numbers

2016/17 at a glance

• 1,123,633 Roman Baths visitors (a record)• 153,593 Victoria Art Gallery visitors • 93,619 Fashion Museum visitors• 34,362 people attended learning sessions and community events• 50,003 guests at civic and private functions• 623,892 shop items sold (up 44,663 on 2015/16)

AwardsThe Roman Baths:

Visit England Tourism Excellence Awards Large Visitor Attraction of the Year – Runner up

South West Tourism Excellence Awards • Large Visitor Attraction of the Year – Gold• Best International Visitor Experience – Silver

Bristol Bath & Somerset Tourism Excellence Awards • Best International Visitor Experience – Gold• Large Visitor Attraction of the Year – Gold

UK Wedding Awards 2017:

• Best Historic Venue – GOLD for the Roman Baths• Best City Venue – GOLD for the Assembly Rooms

GrantsArchway Project:• £3,375,800 awarded for 2017-19 – Heritage Lottery Fund;• £75,000 to the Roman Baths Foundation – Garfield Weston Foundation;• £250,000 awarded to the Roman Baths Foundation – Clore Duffield Foundation.

Fashion Museum:• £2,000 from South West Museum Development for storage improvements; • £5,000 from The Costume Society for conservation work.

Victoria Art Gallery:• £2,394 from the Gallery Friends for curatorial research;• £2,923 from the Gallery Friends for new acquisitions.

Bath Record Office:• £33,137 from The National Cataloguing Grants Scheme for Archives;• £5,000 from The Medlock Charitable Trust for roadshow displays, community

activities and family history courses;• £2,935 from The Wellcome Trust for a conservation needs survey.

Income (turnover) £18,279,000

Surplus before internal overheads £6,584,000

Net profit per Heritage staff member £45,000

Net profit per B&NES resident £36

Net profit per B&NES Council Tax payer £83

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CEO of the National Autistic Society Mark Lever, portfolio holder Cllr Anketell-Jones, Visitor Services Manager Katie Smith and Chair of Council Cllr Alan Hale at the launch of the Society’s new Autism Friendly Awards at the Roman Baths.

21st century Bath will draw on its past to define its future and it could not do better. Economies drive and shape society and over time they bequeath distinctive legacies. Bath has inherited extraordinary riches from the economic activity of our forebears, giving the city a unique and unrivalled identity. Today, cities face rapid change driven by new technology. The way we use time, purchase goods and generally order our lives is evolving in parallel with technological advances and, through these changes, we have the opportunity to reassess the relationship between people and their cities. The heritage of Bath tells us that cities can be very successful and work best when they are understood and well managed. As an arena for social activity, in Aquae Sulis the Romans placed huge emphasis on wellbeing, socialising, good order and lawfulness. Georgians understood the value of a place that could bring together social, physical and

intellectual pursuits to entertain and advance the enlightenment of English society. Protected and curated by Heritage Services, here is the evidence that throws light onto the coming era of economic expansion. This new growth will be built around people and knowledge. Previously, economic activity developed on or near the location of a material resource but modern society is mobile and so is its knowledge. Future business will grow in places where people perform best and quality of life is a determinant of economic choice. Bath’s long history demonstrates repeatedly that it was built – and rebuilt – to elevate the experience of living. The appeal of that idea is still relevant and will influence our modern economy. Heritage Services’ staff, through their vision and dedication, are the keepers of Bath’s interpretation. It is not simply about entertainment and tourism. By investing, presenting and educating,

Heritage Services remind us that we live in one of the most civilised environments in the world. From this we reap rich rewards that we must never take for granted.

Foreword by Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones, Cabinet Member for Economic Development

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Exhibitions:Lace in Fashion opened in February 2017, with more than 50 beautiful dresses from the Museum collection and private lenders showing how lace has been used in fashion, from a trimming on a 1500s smock to today’s glamorous red carpet dresses made entirely from lace. This is the first in a new series of thematic exhibitions to complement the chronological view of fashion offered in the headline exhibition A History of Fashion in 100 Objects.

Events:The year’s programme offered practical workshops and ‘backstage tours’ in the summer months and ‘twilight talks’ across the autumn/winter. Highlights of the year included talks from Professor Carol Tulloch for Black History Month in October 2016 and from Soïzic Pfaff, Chief Archivist at Dior, for the 70th anniversary of the New Look in February 2017, as well as a class in partnership with the Royal School of Needlework based on the earliest embroidered man’s shirt in the Museum, dating from ca.1600.

On-line:The Museum continues to connect with a world-wide audience by sharing images and information about objects in the collection through on-line media, including Twitter and Facebook and, for the first time this year, Pinterest.

On-tour:This year the Museum loaned items to major exhibitions in the UK and overseas. These included a jacquard-woven denim suit by Jean-Paul Gaultier to Winchester Discovery Centre, two grand 18th century court mantuas to an exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, which then transferred to the Winterpalais, Vienna; and a Christian Dior New Look suit to Chatsworth in Derbyshire.

Dress of the Year 2016 is a pair of outfits by leading British designer J W Anderson, selected for the Museum by Kate Phelan of British Vogue.

Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum Manager

Fashion Museum

Top left: Lace in Fashion exhibition curator Elly Summers with fashion designer Jacques Azagury who opened the exhibition.

Top right: Man’s purple hopsack jacket, Mr Fish, 1968, in A History of Fashion in 100 Objects exhibition.

Above: Bath Knitting & Crochet Guild activity at World-Wide Knit in Public Day 2016 organised by the Fashion Museum.

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In 2016 we successfully concluded our 15-month HLF-funded cataloguing and outreach project Our Heritage, Your Story: explore the past with Bath Record Office. Major cataloguing work was completed on Bath’s vast collection of Council records dating from 1189 to the present day, with the aid of over 25 specially recruited and trained volunteers who undertook sorting, listing and data entry, also re-packaging and cleaning of archive documents.

HLF funding also enabled us to engage in outreach activities with local community groups. The Bath Ethnic Minorities Senior Citizens Association produced a scrapbook of their reminiscences of life in 1950s Bath. The Black Families Educational Support Group created a film of their research into the history of black people in Bath which was then given a free public showing as part of national Archives Awareness Week.

We took a roadshow to community events at Peasedown St John, Radstock, South Stoke, Swainswick,

Hinton Charterhouse and Weston, with locally-themed displays and children’s activities. In February 2017 we participated in a World War I commemorative event in Queen Square with a display of related images from our archive collections. The archivist gave nine lectures to local community groups on a range of aspects of Bath’s history and was interviewed on BBC Radio Bristol to publicize events for the Record Office 50th anniversary year in 2017.

Family History day-courses at Beginners’ and Advanced levels were offered on twelve days in Keynsham and Bath with all being fully booked. We also ran fully-booked “behind-the-scenes” tours of our Guildhall archive stores on twelve occasions during the year.

Our online resources for researchers were greatly enhance by the addition to our website of the Bath Burial Index, a database of over 240,000 names compiled by local volunteer Dr Philip Bendall, whom we thanked at a reception to launch the new resource.

For the first time many of our historic maps became available on-line in the culmination of an HLF-funded web-based mapping project Know Your Place in which we collaborated with neighbouring Councils in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Somerset, and Wiltshire.

We loaned seven architectural drawings to the Museum of Bath Architecture for its exhibition Planning for Peace: Re-designing Bath during the First World War including a proposed scheme of 1916 which was never adopted. An art exhibition organised by Bath Fringe Festival featured mixed-media works by nine artists inspired by Georgian archive documents selected from our collections.

Significant new accessions included archive documents and research notes from the Keynsham & Saltford Local History Society, and original artwork and personal papers of Clifford Ellis, former Principal of Bath Academy of Art.

Colin Johnston, Principal Archivist

Bath Record Office

Above left: Dr Philip Bendall launches the Bath Burial Index which he created for the Record Office website.

Left: Black Families Educational Support Group student researching the history of black people in Bath.

Above: Archivists Lucy Powell and Colin Johnston at the Record Office roadshow at South Stoke village fête, July 2016.

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Above: Detail of VE Day Queen Square 1945 from the recently-acquired Ellis Family Archive, which will feature in a forthcoming exhibition.

Right: Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719-1772) Princess of Wales by Jeremiah Davison being removed from display in the Guildhall Banqueting Room for loan to an exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

The Gallery recorded its second busiest year ever with admission figures of 153,593, boosted by top-performing exhibitions including A Room of Their Own: lost Bloomsbury Interiors 1914-30 and Peter Brown: A Bath Painter’s Travels. Thought-provoking images of world events, from the Russian Revolution to the battle for Aleppo were profiled in History through a Lens: Iconic Photographs from the Incite Project.

In the first floor gallery extra space was created by removing the old staff desk, and two new mobile screens were installed to allow changing displays of watercolours and prints from the collection. Meanwhile holdings of such work were greatly enhanced with the gift of the Ellis Family Archive by the executors of the estate of Penelope Ellis. Daughter of Clifford and Rosemary Ellis, founders of Bath Academy of Art, Penelope ensured that artworks and documents from this remarkable institution are preserved for posterity in the public domain. The collection is shared with Bath Record Office.

Another generous gift was the large hand-painted print When Only the Best Will Do from its maker, Sir Howard Hodgkin. The Gallery’s Friends gave grants of £923 towards the purchase of Thomas Malton’s View of Bath Abbey, Somerset, from the South East (another hybrid work, part-print and part-painted), and £2,000 towards the purchase of a Clifford and Rosemary Ellis lithographic poster, Wood (Woodpecker), 1932.

Such additions to the collection deliver greater variety and quality for our visitors, whilst enhancing the Gallery’s reputation beyond the city. One sign of this has been the increasing number of loans to prestigious exhibitions across the world, including over the last year to galleries in Chichester, Leeds, Cardiff, Yale and Dublin.

Jon Benington, Victoria Art Gallery Manager

Victoria Art Gallery

Peter ‘Pete the Street’ Brown at the preview of his exhibition A Bath Painter’s Travels, December 2016.

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Key facts:• £18 million income (turnover)• Net profit per B&NES resident: £36• Net profit per B&NES Council Taxpayer: £83• Net profit per Heritage Services staff member: £45,000• Net profit as a percentage of turnover: 35%

Financial performance 2016/17 +/- 2015/16 £000 % £000Annual IncomeAdmissions 13,776 +15% 11,976Retail and other sales 2,326 +9% 2,128Room hire 570 +8% 527Catering 777 +4% 746Other income 830 +40% 591Total 18,279 +14% 15,968

Annual ExpenditureStaff costs 4,276 3,797Premises and transport 1,209 1,327Merchandise for resale 1,047 965Supplies and services 1,482 1334Revenue re-investment 524 492Building maintenance 945 763Agency and contracted services 731 553Voluntary sector support 9 10Finance and debt charges 561 546Insurance 249 243Total 11,213 +12% 10,030

OverheadsInternal overheads (expenditure) -3,493 -2,918Internal income (recharges) 3,011 2,496

Net internal overheads -482 +14% -422

Net surplus 6,584 +19% 5,516% return on turnover (income) 36% 35%Net surplus before internal overheads 7,066 +19% 5,938

Capital expenditure £000 £000Roman Baths Development / East Baths 691 98Roman Baths Development / Temple Precinct 16 -16Infrastructure/conservation / dilapidations 1 6Roman Baths Development / Great Bath 39 –Pump Room electrical distribution 60 –Victoria Art Gallery air conditioning 9 –Archway Project 47 –Beau St Roman coin hoard 0 11Total 863 99

Heritage Services Financial and business review 2016/17

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SummaryHeritage Services operates as a business unit within the Council and prepares its accounts on a full absorption basis, including a full allocation of overhead and debt finance costs.

The Service’s integrated five-year rolling business plan has enabled the Council to successfully grow both income and profit whilst also financing the significant increases in staffing costs, debt charges and the repair, renewal and maintenance costs that result from a substantially increased level of activity and investment.

As a result the Council has been able to improve the Roman Baths visitor offer and provide a quality of experience consistent with income expectations that is amongst the highest in the country.

Roman Baths’ visitor numbers were expected to drop slightly in 2016/17 from the record level experienced in 2015/16. The year’s budget was therefore set at a level in line with the five-year trend and at the upper end of the range consistent with providing a high quality visitor experience.

Nevertheless in 2016/17 Roman Baths’ visitor numbers reached their highest level ever for the fourth year in succession, exceeding by 7% the record set in 2015/16. As a result, the profit generated in the financial year was also at a record high of £6.6 million. This has more than doubled since Council formed the Service as a business unit. Turnover increased by 14% on the previous year, and the key measure of profitability – net profit as a percentage of turnover – was sustained at the historically high level of 35%.

Performance Measurement: profitabilityHeritage Services measures its business performance nationally through financial benchmarking organised by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA). The Roman Baths has consistently performed in the top 25% of all ALVA attractions for profitability over the last 17 years, when it has sustained a consistently higher profit per visitor and profitability ratio than other leading ALVA attractions.

In 2016/17 profitability continued to be high, with the Roman Baths remaining significantly more profitable than most other top quartile attractions. The average admission price is well above top 25% score and retail sales per square metre are amongst the highest in the UK. Labour costs are still amongst the lowest nationally. The Roman Baths was in the top quartile for:

• Labour costs as a percentage of turnover;

• Admission income per paying visit (average ticket price);

• Total attendance;• Income per employee;• Net contribution per visit (up by 3%

year-on-year).

Visitor Numbers and Admission Income

2016/17 +/- % 2015/16

Roman Baths 1,123,633 +7% 1,046,416

Fashion Museum 93,619 +4% 90,147

Victoria Art Gallery 153,593 -3% 157,851

Performance Measurement: quality of visitor experienceThe visitors’ perception of the experience offered is crucial to sustaining excellent performance, as it can determine the future popularity of the attractions. The table (right) summarises the ‘quality of visit’ benchmarking undertaken in Autumn 2015, Spring 2016 and Summer 2016. The results show that the Enjoyment and Value-for-Money ratings for the Roman Baths are slightly below the mean scores for All Attractions and the Heritage group, although the likelihood to recommend (net promoter score) is marginally higher.

Enjoyment Value-for-Money Net promoter score (mean out of 10) (mean out of 10) (likelihood to recommend)

All Attractions 8.7 8.3 + 60

Museums & Galleries 8.7 8.7 + 60

Heritage attractions 8.7 8.2 + 61

*Roman Baths 8.6 7.9 + 62

Leisure attractions 8.6 8.0 + 57

Highest score 9.5 9.4 + 87

Lowest score 8.2 7.7 + 32

[*The Roman Baths is one of the ‘Heritage attractions’ group.]

Over 70% of the income generated by Heritage Services comes from Roman Baths’ visitor admission charges. Variations in its visitor numbers and in the average spend by each visitor are the key indicators of financial performance for the Service.

In 2016/17 Roman Baths admission income totalled £13.10 million, £1.2 million (+10%) above target for the year. Income grew by £1.74 million (+15%) on 2015/16 and visitor volumes grew by over 7%.

Visits to the Fashion Museum in 2016/17 were up 4% on 2015/16. Visits to the Victoria Art Gallery in 2016/17 fell by 3%, reflecting the bumper figures attracted to the Grayson Perry and Jane Austen’s Bath exhibitions the previous year.

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The Marketing team undertook three substantial marketing campaigns during 2015/16. The Summer Evening Campaign for the Roman Baths included media in the London Underground, and the team worked with social media influencers and a dedicated PR firm – all firsts for Heritage Services. The results were impressive: 40,000 people visited the site after 5.00pm, a record for evening visitors. Press coverage had an advertising equivalent value of more than £750,000 and there were nearly 53,000 hits on the website.

The team coordinated a campaign to promote the Fashion Museum’s Lace in Fashion exhibition which included podcast advertising targeting fashionistas. A preview event for bloggers generated more than 100,000 hashtag impressions with a reach of nearly 65,000. Lace in Fashion also enjoyed exceptional PR coverage, including The Today Programme on Radio 4 and articles in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.

This year Heritage Open Week was rebranded Museums Week. A new identity and website were created for the programme and the team undertook dedicated marketing. All participating museums reported that they were busier than last year and would take part again in 2017.

Rebecca Clay attended the Destination Britain China and South Korea events hosted by Visit Britain in Shanghai and Seoul, where she met more than 120 travel organisations, including some of China’s biggest travel operators. Marketing to China was an important part of the Roman Baths strategy and the team worked with Nee Hao Online, Here in UK and Red Scarf to engage Chinese people in Britain through digital marketing. Mandarin-speaking visitors to the Roman Baths increased by more than 10,000 over the previous year’s numbers.

The Service’s share of the Groups Market was supported by the Group sales team’s attendance at World Travel Market, the UK’s largest tourism and travel show, and Explore GB. The Roman Baths also hosted 40 different trade familiarisation visits from all over the world.

Patricia Dunlop, Commercial Manager; Rebecca Clay, Marketing Manager

Marketing

Above: Marketing decal for the Lace in Fashion exhibition in the window of Jolly’s department store, Milsom Street, Bath.

Above right: Roman Baths late evening opening advertisement on the London Underground, summer 2016.

Pat Dunlop with Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby on an informal visit to the Roman Baths, autumn 2016.

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Museums Shops

2016/17 was buoyant for events, generating record income. The Assembly Rooms was the star performer, exceeding budget for the year by 7% (£21k), largely due to a significant increase in income from conference business. Although considerably lower in value, income from private hires at the Victoria Art Gallery exceeded budget by 21%. Wedding business remained healthy at all venues with sunset weddings at the Roman Baths popular throughout the year.

The last few years have been typified by lower numbers attending events but this trend may now be reversing. In 2016/17 total attendees were back up to 50,000 and there were more corporate events lasting two days or more. Furthermore, clients have been a little less budget-driven and a little more willing to increase spend-per-head.

The team continues to produce quality print as well as putting significant resource in to implementing an extensive digital marketing strategy. The Events brochure was updated and refreshed following a similar exercise with the Weddings brochure in March 2016.

Continued focused improvements to the bathvenues.co.uk website have had positive effects. Unique visitors, sessions, bounce rates, engagement and referrals all show improvements year on year. Detailed web analytics have better informed marketing decisions as well as identifying areas with potential for growth. Following a strategic marketing review, several new campaigns were identified. One of these, ‘Inspire your Team where Dickens inspired a crowd’, also included extensive publicity at railway stations – a first for Bath’s Historic Venues.

Significant events during the year included a sell-out public lecture by Grayson Perry, conferences for International Narcotics Research, The Society for Rheumatology, REGEN SW, and parties for Danone, Future and The Bath Life Awards.

The year ended with the winning of two awards in the national Hitched UK Wedding Awards. The Assembly Rooms won Best City Wedding Venue and the Roman Baths won Best Historic Wedding Venue.

Tom Deller, Corporate Hospitality Manager

Bath’s Historic Venues

Retail Sales in 2016/17 ended the year 9% up on target at £2,254,978, an increase of 9% on 2015/16. Fashion Museum Shop: strong sales were achieved in 2016/17, exceeding target by £13,109 (+9%) and sales achieved last year by £23,236 (+21%). The number of customers served fell below target at -3% but still saw an increase of 13% on 2015/16, driven by an increase in the conversion rate of visitors to customers of 1.3%. The average spend per customer exceeded target by 13% at £11.09 and was up 7% on 2015/16.

New ranges of accessories to appeal to men were introduced. Stunning lace design jewellery was sourced from a Nottingham lace maker to support the Lace in Fashion exhibition, along with a range of books and gift items.

Roman Baths’ shops: sales exceeded target by £151,306 (+8%) and by 10% compared to 2015/16 (which was a record year for retail sales). The number of customers served exceeded target by 4% at 244,625 and achieved an increase of 6% on 2015/16. The average spend per customer served of £8.33 was up 4% (£0.33p) against both target and 2015/16, but the average spend per Roman Baths visitor of £1.81 was -0.54% below target. Sales per square foot in the main shop were £1,446, 8 % above target.

A new jewellery display cabinet was commissioned to house our ever popular Roman-inspired contemporary jewellery ranges. Eye-catching window displays were produced for the Christmas season attracting many local customers, with sales exceeding the previous year.

Victoria Art Gallery: sales at the Gallery shop exceed target by 57% with interior design gifts relating to the Bloomsbury exhibition and books relating to the Peter Brown exhibition in particular contributing to shop sales. We were delighted to work with Bloomsbury artist Cressida Bell; her eye-catching hand-painted cushions and lamps proved a hit with Gallery customers. A special centenary publication of a book of works by sculptor Kenneth Armitage was popular with visitors, while sales of Peter Brown’s exhibition book A Painter’s Travels sold over 600 copies. New shop display tables were built to aid the presentation of merchandise. Judith Zedner, Retail Services Manager

Regen South West conference at the Assembly Rooms.

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World Heritage Management is underpinned by a 6-year Management Plan, produced in consultation with a wide variety of interested parties. In 2016/17 we reached the end of one plan and launched another. This is no small undertaking. As well as necessary widespread consultation, this Plan must satisfy a wide range of audiences from the international (UNESCO and advisory bodies), national (the UK Government) through to the local (residents associations and other groups). The successful submission in January 2017 of what is our third management plan was therefore a major milestone. As we entered our 30th year since inscription in 2017, there are few other sites worldwide that can match Bath’s experience in urban heritage management.

The Plan is a delivery tool, not an end in itself, and the transition provides an opportunity for review. Performance under the previous plan period has resulted in a very good state of conservation. To pick just one success indicator, various Bath projects have successfully secured at least £17.3m of Heritage Lottery Funding over the plan

period, with more to come as projects progress. All of these projects reference the World Heritage Site in their bids and we work to ensure co-ordination. Of greatest satisfaction to Heritage Services is of the course the significant step forward that Lottery backing brings in realising a World Heritage Interpretation Centre.

The production and implementation of the Management Plan is overseen by a Steering Group, with an independent Chair. In another transition, Peter Metcalfe has completed his term of office and recruitment for a replacement Chair is underway.

Other milestones in the year have included the launch of a new web-site and social media feeds. Our Twitter account was launched in May 2016 and quickly reached 100+ followers, greatly enhancing our ability to spread news of events such as World Heritage Day.

Our Great Spas of Europe bid continues to advance, with Bath remaining firmly established within a smaller project group. We can see a potential

submission date (to UNESCO) ahead of us now, with a possibility of submission in late 2017 but more likely 2018.

The balance between being a living city and a globally important heritage centre will seldom find perfect equilibrium, and each new major development can raise questions over its impact on the World Heritage Site. The local planning system is developed to address these issues, drawing upon policy documents such as the WH Management Plan. There will always be a role for education and training as part of this and one which we are well practised at providing.

Tony Crouch, World Heritage Manager

World Heritage

Above: Georgian dancing at World Heritage Day 2016 at the Assembly Rooms.

Top right: Retiring World Heritage Steering Group Chair at the World Heritage Symbol in Stall Street, Bath.

Bottom right: World Heritage Management Plan 2016-2022.

Supported by

WORLD HERITAGE SITE

THE CITY OF

Management Plan 2016-2022

• WO

RLD

HERITAGE • PATRIMOIN

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PATR

IMONIO MUNDIAL

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AwardsThe Roman Baths and Pump Room won Gold in the Large Attraction of the Year Category and Gold in the International Visitor Experience category at the Bristol, Bath & Somerset Tourism Awards. It then went on to win Gold in the South West Tourism Excellence Awards for Large Visitor Attraction of the Year and Silver for International Visitor Experience.

The Roman Baths won one of the new Gold Awards for the Visit England Visitor Attractions Quality Scheme (VAQS) and the Fashion Museum and Victoria Art Gallery were also successful in achieving the VAQS standard.

The Roman Baths was presented with one of the first Autism Friendly Awards 2016 at a special launch of the awards by the National Autistic Society held at the Roman Baths. The Baths and the Fashion Museum both achieved the Trip Advisor 2016 Certificate of Excellence and the Roman Baths has been voted the Travellers’ Choice no 6 in the Top 10 Landmarks in the UK.

Work experience placementsThere have been 42 week-long school and college work experience placements helping front-of-house staff look after our visitors. In addition we offered three international placements to two French students for a month, and one American student from Advanced Studies England spent a semester with the Visitor Services team. Five students with learning disabilities from local specialist schools also experienced the world of work for one day a week for a term at the Roman Baths.

Front-of-House Staff DevelopmentAutism Awareness training has been rolled out to all front of house teams. We continue to work with Visit England offering their training courses to visitor-facing staff, including Welcome to Excellence, Welcome International, Welcome Host Gold (Exceeding Visitor Expectations) and Successful Selling. The Heritage Services mid-week training programme continues to expand to help staff develop the skills and confidence needed to offer the high level of service we expect with ever-growing numbers of visitors.

Improvements in visitor management, sales in the shops and interaction with visitors throughout the sites have led to a continued increase in positive visitor feedback; we have more than 14,000 reviews on Trip Advisor scoring Excellent or Very Good at the Roman Baths and over 1,000 at the Fashion Museum.

TicketingWebsales have now been launched for the Roman Baths, Fashion Museum and Victoria Art Gallery. Visitors can now pre-purchase a ticket for a specific time slot any time up to an hour before they arrive. This will help to spread the number of visitors across the day, improving queuing times and helping with visitor management of the site.

Katie Smith, Visitor Services Manager

Visitor Services

Top left: New tickets produced by the new visitor management system.

Above: VSA Michael Claydon conducting a guided tour of the Roman Baths.

Above right: Stephen Clews, Katie Smith and Rebecca Clay with the two trophies won at the South West Tourism Awards 2017.

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This year schools enjoyed working in the History of Fashion in 100 Objects exhibition at the Fashion Museum, exploring fashion through the ages. We had some very creative children at the Victoria Art Gallery and worked with some new nursery groups from the local area, looking at identity and the natural world through our art collections and special exhibitions.

Work has continued on developing ideas for the Archway Project and the Roman Baths Learning Centre. As part of our pilot work the Learning & Participation Manager has attended two Classics and Latin teacher groups. Our popular new Adult Latin classes continued through 2016/17, leading to a follow-on course to our Beginner’s Latin and further plans for the autumn as participants continue with this fascinating subject.

This year our local community programme with local organisations involved working closely with adult carers and young carers at Bath Carers’ Centre. In September and October young carers explored the Roman Baths and then

produced a short stop-go animation (think Wallace and Gromit) of activity at the Roman Baths.

On World Heritage Day 2016 at the Assembly Rooms, about 1,000 visitors explored local projects, learned to dance and experienced a duel. Museums at Night featured the Bath Spa Band at the Roman Baths and the ever-popular James Lambeth Trio at the Victoria Art Gallery.

In June 2016 workshop leaders led art activities at the Midsomer Norton Arts Festival. The Roman Baths went out and about with roadshows and festivals of archaeology at Peasedown St John and Timsbury to highlight the archaeology of the local areas.

Heritage Open Days 2016 included Bath Record Office for the first time and a special exhibition on Foxhill WWII heritage.

Heritage Open Week became Museums Week in 2016 and all of our local museums and heritage sites took part.

We had great fun at the Fashion Museum creating leggings to celebrate one of the most recent items in the Fashion Museum History of Fashion displays.

In March the Roman Baths took part in British Science Week. Collection volunteers gave up their time, placement students co-ordinated the activity and Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution Science Cadets created activities.

Lindsey Braidley, Learning & Participation Manager

Learning & Participation

Top left: Heritage Open Days visitor at the archaeology store near Keynsham in September 2016.

Above: Widcombe School year 3 class visiting the Victoria Art Gallery to find out about how we run an art gallery and put on exhibitions.

Above right: Bath Brownies taking part in a sleepover for Museums at Night October 2016.

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The main development in 2016/17 was in the East Baths where interpretation has been improved, with new films, computer-generated images (cgi) and projections installed, coupled with additional conservation work and measures to control water penetration. The displays look great and have been much admired by more visitors as new lighting has improved visitor footfall.

Costumed interpretation has been developed further with the introduction of new characters rooted in the evidence of people known to have been present in Bath in Roman times. They include Candidina, a sightless person hoping the Goddess and the hot waters will improve her eyesight, which allows us to explore the theme of disability in the Roman world.

The Roman Baths has teamed up with Radstock Museum to provide a high specification museum showcase where objects in the Roman Baths collection that come from the southern part of the Bath & North East Somerset area can be displayed. The first object to go on show was a small hoard of medieval silver coins from Wellow parish. Radstock Museum will now be able to use the showcase to display objects loaned in from other museums, which have sometimes been reluctant to lend, thus extending the range of interesting objects

that can be seen locally. This follows the addition of a similar showcase into the library in Keynsham where local material is now displayed.

Many thanks to our fantastic volunteer teams in Bath and in Keynsham, where we also have collections in store. Around forty volunteers and twenty-nine students on placement have helped with recording and managing the collections behind the scenes. They are grouped into project teams led by curatorial staff and have worked on collections from local archaeological excavations throughout the district for which the Roman Baths is the approved repository, as well as helping at public open days and events. Social history collections stored at the former St John’s School in Locksbrook Road have also been prepared for transfer to a refurbished building on Lansdown.

Stephen Clews, Roman Baths & Pump Room Manager

Roman Baths

Left: Studio filming for the new cgi interpretation of the East Baths tepidarium

Below left: The film in place as a ‘Pepper’s Ghost’ projected onto a screen in the tepidarium.

Below: ‘Science busking’ at the Baths during British Science Week.

Hands-on activity at the Evening Explorers event for visitors with autism.

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In 2016/17 great progress was made towards this £5 million project to create a World Heritage Centre for Bath in York Street and a new learning centre for the Roman Baths in Swallow Street.

In September 2016 the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) awarded the project a Round 2 grant of £3.375 million to add to the £1 million capital funding the Council had already committed to the project. Fundraising through the Roman Baths Foundation has secured grants of £250,000 from the Clore Duffield Foundation and £75,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation, as well as numerous generous donations from public and private donors and visitors to the Roman Baths.Generous pledges of goods and services in kind have also been received from Wessex Water and the Bath Stone Company, and Adopt-a-Stone and Adopt-a-Tile schemes have

been set up to enable members of the public to personally fund the conservation and display of individual objects.

Several In-Touch stakeholder and fundraising evenings were held through the year, culminating in an event in March 2017 solely for donors to thank them for their support, with a lecture on The Power of Place delivered by special guest speaker Sir Neil Cossons OBE.

Work has continued on developing ideas for new learning modules and activities in the Roman Baths Learning Centre with several local school and community organisations consulted about this. It has included planning a range of hands-on activities set amongst in-situ Roman remains and Roman architectural fragments in the Investigation Zone and will involve a test pit where learning groups will be able to re-excavate a real

Roman bath! Plans for the layout and content of the World Heritage Centre have also progressed with the exhibition designer.

Archaeological investigation took place on site during the year to clarify certain issues and inform the design process. With the funding in place and ‘permission to start’ received from HLF, detailed design work on the conversion and repair of the buildings and subterranean spaces began in early 2017.

The Archway ProjectFocus on

Left: Artist’s cross-section through the buildings.

Below left: Dame Vivien Duffield in the Investigation Zone with Project Manager Jenna Spellane and Stephen Clews.

Below: Archaeological work in progress in the Access Zone.

THEROMANBATHSFOUNDATION

How to contact us with enquiries about this Annual Review 2016/17

Front cover photographs:

1. Artist Grayson Perry during his public lecture at the Assembly Rooms, April 2016

2. Chair of Council Cllr Alan Hale welcoming a Chinese travel trade delegate over a glass of spa water in the Pump Room

3. Award-winning lace fashions by Bath Spa University alumna Grace Deller, headlining the Lace in Fashion exhibition at the Fashion Museum

4. Heritage Open Days at the Central United Reformed Church, Argyle Street, Bath

5. Hands-on activities at the Roman Baths, February 2017 half-term

6. Painted ceramic fan in the Lost Bloomsbury Interiors exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery

7. Rosemary Boyns of Bath Record Office with BBC West presenter Alex Lovell at the Heritage Roadshow, Weston, Bath in April 2016

8. Christmas display in the Roman Baths Shop, December 2016

9. Artist-in-residence Harriet Bouchard during her portrait drawing residency at the Victoria Art Gallery

10. Bath Spa University School of Art and Design fashion students’ catwalk show at the Assembly Rooms

11. 1920s embroidered silk satin beach pyjamas, on display in A History of Fashion in 100 Objects at the Fashion Museum

12. Photo shoot in the Roman Baths for the Chinese Nee Hao lifestyle magazine

13. Visitors admiring the Assembly Rooms chandeliers during one of the new ‘balcony tours’

14. Mayor’s Honorary Guide Paul Hopkins leading a walking tour during World Heritage Day 2016

15. Wedding ceremony in the Roman Baths, December 2016

16. A study in concentration during a visit by Widcombe Junior School to the Victoria Art Gallery

This Annual Review can be made available in a range of community languages, large print, Braille, on tape, electronic and accessible formats.

Published by Bath and North East Somerset Council Heritage Services

Print procured by the Council’s Print Services, May 2017

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12Head of Heritage ServicesPump Room, Stall Street, Bath BA1 1LZ01225 477760

Roman Baths 01225 477773 romanbaths_enquiries@bathnes.gov.uk

Fashion Museum 01225 477754 fashion_enquiries@bathnes.gov.uk

Victoria Art Gallery01225 477232 victoria_enquiries@bathnes.gov.uk

Bath Record Office, Guildhall01225 477421 archives@bathnes.gov.uk

Learning & Participation01225 477757 museum_education@bathnes.gov.uk

World Heritage Management01225 477584 world_heritage@bathnes.gov.uk

Museum Shops01225 477796/95 museumshop_enquiries@bathnes.gov.uk

Bath’s Historic Venues01225 477786/82 historic_venuehire@bathnes.gov.uk

Pump Room Restaurant01225 444477 events.bath@searcys.co.uk

Roman Baths Kitchen Café01225 477877 RBK@searcys.co.uk

romanbaths.co.ukfashionmuseum.co.ukvictoriagal.org.ukbathvenues.co.uk batharchives.co.uk bathworldheritage.org.uk

@RomanBathsBath@Fashion_Museum@VictoriaArtBath@BathVenues