Heritage Services Annual Review 2013 /14

For learning, inspiration and enjoyment Operations Assistant Tobias Deane who won the Pride of Bath Young Person of the Year Award 2013. Silver Award won by the Roman Baths at the Visit England Large Visitor Attraction of the Year Awards 2013.

2013 /14 2013/14 has been one at a glance of our busiest years ever

• £14.2 million turnover We saw a better-than-expected financial The Fashion Museum celebrated 50 performance, returning a profit of £5.2 years in Bath with its stunning Fifty • £5.2 million profit, £1.1 million million to the Council, mainly due to Fabulous Dresses exhibition, while its above target higher admissions and retail income summer show Laura Ashley: the • Net income per B&NES delivered by record visitor numbers at the Romantic Heroine attracted widespread Roman Baths where they hit the million public interest. resident: £29 mark with a day to spare. • Net income per B&NES The quality of our collections was Council Tax payer: £67 Our business model continues to attract reflected by requests for loans from the interest. In April 2013 we welcomed a Gallery and Fashion Museum to • Net income per HS staff delegation of the Director and senior prestigious exhibitions in the UK and the member: £42,000 managers from the Kremlin Museums, USA, and by a substantial grant to the Moscow, to discuss our investment Record Office to catalogue 900 years of • £569,000 secured in grant-aid strategy. Highlight of the visit was the Bath Corporation records. At the Roman • 1,195,500 daytime visitors; civic reception at the Victoria Art Gallery. Bath work continued towards acquiring and displaying the Beau Street Hoard. • 60,290 guests attended civic The introduction of admission charges and private functions for the Gallery’s main exhibition space During the year front-of-house staff was a huge change, but the many across the Service have worked on new • 36,000 attended learning people quickly recognised the good visitor / shopper engagement workshops and community value of the annual exhibition pass. The techniques, and user satisfaction with activities GWR and Peter Brown shows were our services has continued to be well among the highlights of another top over 90% ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. This was • 25,500 valid Discovery Cards quality programme. reflected by the Service retaining the in circulation Customer Service Excellence standard with a record 10 ‘compliance plusses’. • Customer Service Excellence retained with a record 10 Back-of-house teams have worked just ‘compliance plusses’ as hard. Operations staff, curators, archivists and sales and marketing staff • Visitor Attraction Quality have worked tirelessly to keep the show Assurance Scheme (VAQAS) on the road during the year, while the – all sites reaccredited efforts of our Business Analysis colleagues were recognised with a Team Stephen Bird Award in the Council’s Employee Head of Heritage Services Excellence Awards 2013.

2 Foreword By Councillor Ben Stevens, Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development

I am so proud to introduce this Annual events such as the launch of the Museum there are knowledgeable and Review 2013/14 after my first year as spectacular Laura Ashley exhibition at enthusiastic teams documenting, caring Cabinet Member responsible for the the Assembly Rooms and the reception for, and making publicly accessible Sustainable Development portfolio. The and dinner of the Association of Leading collections that would otherwise not be name is particularly apt for this service Visitor Attractions which we hosted at available for the public to see, study, area, whose business plan is all about the Roman Baths in September, while learn from and enjoy. achieving sustainability in its three core the AGM of the Friends of the Victoria Art areas of conservation, customer care Gallery brought home to me the passion Of course one of the truly exciting parts and commercial activity, while at the that our publicly-owned collections can of my job is, alongside our officers, same time managing the development of inspire in local people. planning for the future of our heritage collections, buildings and public services assets. This year we were able to open that contribute both to the wider local During the year I have attended events the new, accessible Temple Precinct and economy and the well-being and away from the district to broaden my received funding to display the Beau personal fulfilment of our residents. knowledge. These have included the Street Hoard. These steps are part of an Museums Association annual conference exciting programme to ensure residents It has been a year of getting to know the in Liverpool and the launch of the China and visitors to all our attractions can Service better; understanding the Welcome Charter in London in which the enjoy a new experience that preserves extraordinary breadth of internationally Roman Baths is one of the founding and interprets the history of our city. The important heritage assets for which we partners. My colleague, Cllr Cherry next year promises to be just as exciting are responsible. We all know the world Beath, has been working alongside other as we develop our plans for new renowned Roman Baths, but there is so historic spa towns across Europe, education facilities, a World Heritage much more to the Service than that, strengthening our ties to them and interpretation centre, and improvements ranging from a single hat, document, hopefully developing an additional World to the Victoria Art Gallery. painting or coin at one end of the Heritage inscription for our beautiful city. spectrum to an entire World Heritage City at the other. It is a real privilege to be The content of this annual review cannot responsible for their care and do full justice to the hard work done by interpretation. staff, whether front-of-house or behind- the-scenes, across the Service on a 24/7 I have been behind the scenes in every 365-days-a-year basis. I am enormously building across the Service, sometimes grateful to them. Nor can I finish without to places I never knew existed. This has paying a word of tribute to the increasing given me a valuable insight into the full numbers of volunteers who work across range activities such as study facilities, the Service. Without the dedicated team sales offices, maintenance workshops at the Victoria Art Gallery we would not and kitchens that enable us to deliver be able to keep the whole building open such a diverse range of services to the to the public, while behind the scenes at public. It was a pleasure to attend major the Record Office and the Fashion

Our Business Analysis team being presented with their Team Award by Chair of Council Cllr Neil Butters and Chief Executive Jo Farrar at the Council’s Employee Excellence Awards 2013.

3 Below: Chair of Council Cllr Neil Butters and Bath Spa University performing arts students in front of star exhibit The Railway Station by William Powell Frith at the Bath and the Great Western Railway exhibition. Right: La table ronde 1946 by Marc Chagall, part of the bequest to the Gallery by Dr Sheila Day.

Victoria Art Gallery

In April 2013 the Gallery introduced Another successful outcome of charging Other highlights of 2013/14 included: charges to special exhibitions for the first has been the addition of prestigious time with a stunning Henry Moore show. loans to exhibitions from major • 92,160 visitors to the Gallery; To prepare for this, the circulation route institutions such as Tate, the Royal • 58,886 visitors to the free permanent was changed and the Gallery shop College of Art, National Museum Wales, collection on the first floor; relocated, generously grant-aided by Arts Arts Council Collection, Southampton Art • 2,291 children attended teaching Council England. Despite some initial Gallery, Birmingham Art Gallery and sessions and workshops; customer resistance, overall visitor Royal Holloway College. Without the • Sales of 21,833 day entry tickets to numbers were only 9% down on generosity of lenders, both public and special exhibitions; 2012/13, and the initiative has yielded an private, the Gallery would not achieve a • Sales of 1,781 annual exhibition entirely new income stream. quality product commensurate with the passes at £10 each; charging regime. • 1,079 volunteer guide sessions worked, Works of art and shop sales have equating to 3,777 hours of their time; continued to perform well, with the net In support of the Gallery’s work to bring • 2,960 usages of the audio guide made result that the Gallery is now able to the permanent collection up to date, a for the Peter Brown exhibition; recover a higher proportion of its costs. local collector Dr. Sheila Day bequeathed • Grants of £3,225 from the V&A One particularly pleasing result has been 30 paintings, prints, sculptures and Purchase Grant Fund and £2,000 the sale of just under 1,800 annual studio ceramics by leading contemporary from the Friends of Victoria Art Gallery exhibition passes; this healthy take-up artists. towards the purchase of Study for shows that the pass is perceived as People in a Wind (1949) by delivering excellent value for money. Kenneth Armitage; Moreover, more visitors are now • Works from the Council’s permanent exploring the permanent collection, to collection loaned to exhibitions in which access remains free, and are New Haven (Connecticut), Toulouse, spending longer in the galleries. Bern, Middlesbrough, Bristol and Bath.

Jon Benington Victoria Art Gallery Manager

4 Bath Record Office

The number of personal visitors to the Highlight of the year was the successful Record Office was the highest for three bid for £41,567.00 of external funding years, bucking the national trend of which will enable the full cataloguing of declining numbers in Record Offices 900 years of Bath Corporation records resulting from increased online historical dating back to the 12th century. resources. Other highlights of 2013/14 included: We extended our web-content with the addition of a database of Victorian • In a national survey of Record Office photographs and names of Bath users, 99% rated our service as ‘good’ prisoners. Not only did family historians (23%) or ‘very good’ (76%); respond enthusiastically but it caught the • We loaned 48 original items, attention of national and local media with documents and images, to exhibitions articles in , , and at four museums in Bath; . We continued to provide • The archivist gave four lectures to local visitors with free online access to community groups; pay-per-view local history websites • exhibition stands at Weston village Ancestry, Find My Past, and The British local history fair and Weston-super- Newspaper Archive. Mare family history day; • Preparational meetings were held with Publicity for a new acquisition, an 1819 local museums to agree loans of letter written from Bath to the American archive images and documents for consul in London giving advice to visitors WWI commemorative exhibitions. to Bath, also sparked coverage in local Top: Page from the WWI hospital- media and a local radio interview with the Colin Johnston fundraising book Our Hospital ABC. archivist. Principal Archivist Above: 1894 photograph of prisoner Kathleen Durham on the Bath Ancestors page of the Record Office website.

5 The Fashion Museum

2013 was the Museum’s 50th The Museum’s summer exhibition was Other highlights of the year included: anniversary year and was celebrated with Laura Ashley: The Romantic Heroine, a the exhibition Fifty Fabulous Frocks. colourful throng in the Ball Room of over • Embroidered gloves and a woman’s From an 18th century embroidered Court 90 dresses that ignited many personal waistcoat from the collection were star mantua to a Mickey Mouse day dress memories of this much-loved 1970s exhibits in the ground-breaking from the 1930s, this exhibition showed brand. A book was produced to exhibition In Fine Style at Buckingham the depth, breadth and quality of the accompany the exhibition, which Palace and the Palace of collection. Donations from leading British travelled on to The Bowes Museum in Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. designers especially for the exhibition County Durham. • Loans to temporary exhibitions at the indicated the ongoing high regard in National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria which the Museum is held by the British The Dress of the Year 2013 was chosen and Albert Museum, Somerset House, fashion industry. by Susanna Lau, one of the UK’s leading The Garden Museum, Rhode Island fashion bloggers (www.stylebubble.com) Museum of Art and Design and the who selected a sugar pink silk organza American Museum in Britain, Bath. lace & gem dress designed by leading • 34 volunteer helpers and student British designer Christopher Kane, styled placements worked a total of 2400 with a pair of pink and black striped hours on a variety of projects. stiletto sandals by Sophia Webster and a • The Museum now has over 4000 cartoon character cap by Nazir Mehtar. followers on Twitter, sharing daily news and information and images of objects in the collection. • 2 major grants from Arts Council Top: Legendary fashion editor Miss Felicity England totalling £147,500 for work in Green opened Laura Ashley: The Romantic 2014/15 and 2015/16. Heroine, with Rosemary Harden and Professor Iain R Webb of the Royal College Rosemary Harden of Art who organised the exhibition. Fashion Museum Manager Left: 17th century embroidered woman’s waistcoat on display at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace 2013. Courtesy – Royal Collection Trust.

6 Heritage Services Financial and business review 2013/14

Key aspects of performance: • £14.2 million income (turnover) • Net income per B&NES resident: £29 • Net income per B&NES Council Tax payer: £67 • Net income per Heritage Services staff member: £42,000

Financial performance 2013/14 +/- 2012/13 £000 % £000 Annual Income Admissions 10,474 +16% 9,053 Retail and other sales 1,984 +11% 1,793 Room hire 474 +12% 423 Catering 687 +11% 620 Other income 602 +54% 392 Total 14,221 +16% 12,281

Annual Expenditure Staff costs 3,309 3,101 Premises and transport 1,223 1,154 Merchandise for resale 932 828 Supplies and services (note 1) 1,005 817 Revenue re-investment 493 475 Building maintenance 637 522 Agency and contracted services 401 377 Voluntary sector support 11 3 Finance and debt charges 430 383 Insurance 230 223 Total 8,671 +10% 7,883

Overheads Internal overheads (expenditure) -2,401 -1,798 Internal income (recharges) 2,027 1,267

Net internal overheads (note 2) -374 -30% -531

Net surplus 5,176 +34% 3,867

% return on turnover 36% 31.5%

Net surplus before internal overheads 5,550 +26% 4,398

Capital expenditure £000 £000 Roman Baths Development/Temple Precinct 531 66 Infrastructure/conservation 335 Roman Baths Kitchen (café development) -25 334 Beau St Roman coin hoard 69 Visitor management system 60 Total 970 400

Notes: 1 Linked to “other income” 2 Changes to accounting treatment; some overheads now included in annual expenditure above

7 Heritage Services operates as a business quality of experience consistent with As a result of these record visitor unit within the Council and prepares its income expectations that is amongst the numbers, the profit generated in 2013/14 accounts on a full absorption basis, highest in the country. also hit a record high of £5.2 Million, up including a full allocation of overhead and £1.3 Million on 2012/13. Turnover debt finance costs. In 2013/14 a post-Olympic ‘bounce increased by 16% and net profit as a back’ was expected and the year’s percentage of turnover was at its highest In April 2013 the Cabinet agreed the budget for Roman Baths’ visitor numbers ever level at 36%. The Service monitors latest in a series of integrated rolling assumed the third highest number of the key drivers of the trading position in Business Plans that have enabled the visitors in the last 10 years. However, detail throughout the year, and identified Service to successfully grow both numbers increased by even more than this significant in-year trend very early in income and profit whilst also financing expected and reached their highest level the financial year. As a result the Council the significant increases in debt charges ever, just topping one million. This was able with confidence to reallocate and the repair, renewal and maintenance exceptional performance was consistent the additional funds generated during costs that result from a substantially with many other major UK attractions 2013/14 to finance other Council increased level of investment. As a result and may prove to have been a one-off priorities as part of the latest budget the Council has been able to improve the ‘spike’ that is not repeated. exercise. Roman Baths visitor offer and provide a

Visitor Numbers and Admission Income

2013/14 +/- % 2012/13 Roman Baths 1,007,625 +12% 903,240 Fashion Museum 95,922 -17%* 115,408 Victoria Art Gallery 91,952 -11% 103,436

Over 70% of the income generated by Visits to the Victoria Art Gallery fell by amongst the lowest of all ALVA Heritage Services comes from Roman 11% year-on-year as a result of the members, whilst admission and catering Baths’ visitor admission charges. introduction of charges for admission to income were amongst the highest per Variations in its visitor numbers and in the the lower exhibition gallery. Income from hour of admission. average spend by each visitor are the admissions, including exhibition season key indicators of financial performance passes, totalled £66k. Heritage Services as a whole again for the service. performed well above the median of Performance Measurement ALVA attractions in all areas of visitor Roman Baths’ admission income in Heritage Services measures its business revenue and activity other than retail 2013/14 totalled £9.98 Million, and was performance against comparable large secondary spend, with catering spend £826k (9%) above target for the year. visitor attractions nationwide through improving following the opening of the This over-achievement was almost financial benchmarking organised by the Roman Baths Kitchen. The Service was entirely due to increased visitor volumes; Association of Leading Visitor Attractions in the top 25% for net return on turnover; average spend per visitor was within (ALVA). total income and admission income per 0.1% of the target. visit; admission income per paying visit In 2013 the Roman Baths again (admission price); income and net Both individual and group visits increased performed in the top 25% nationally for contribution (profit) per member of staff; against 2012/13, with group visits – as all 5 measures of profitability, retail sales per m2, and average spend expected – recovering strongly following demonstrating a level of return amongst per catering transaction, whilst labour the downturn experienced during the the highest in the country, together with costs overall were still amongst the Olympic year. There were 336,000 Group labour costs amongst the lowest of all lowest of all ALVA attractions. visits in 2013/14, generating admission ALVA attractions. The site also performed income totalling £2.7 Million. in the top quartile for total income and Richard Hartill admission income per visit; admission Business & Resource Manager The removal of the experimental free income per paying visit (admission price); entry for National Trust members admission price yield; total attendance; resulted, as expected, in a year-on-year income per member of staff; retail sales reduction of 17% in Fashion Museum per m2, and average catering spend. visitor numbers. Total visits of 96,000 in The site is amongst the most expensive 2013/14 were within 1% of the numbers per hour of admission: the average *due to withdrawal of trial free admission expected. overall dwell time per visitor was for National Trust members

8 Above: Bus shelter poster advertising for the Roman Baths. Left: Commercial Manager Pat Dunlop and Group Sales Officer Ellen Matthews collecting the CIE Tours International Awards of Excellence 2013 trophy. Below: The Roman Baths on the front cover of the Chinese Condé Nast Traveler magazine, September 2013. Bottom: Lord Lee, Chairman of ALVA (centre) and Cllr Paul Crossley, Leader of Council (right) at the ALVA reception.

Marketing

Digital media are ever more important The Roman Baths was a founder and the rise of the mobile ‘phone and member of the Government’s China tablet has been accompanied by Welcome Charter, established by Visit corresponding growth in social media. Britain to encourage trade with China. The Roman Baths is now among the The Roman Baths welcomed more than UK’s top performers on social media and 70,000 Mandarin speakers last year. the Fashion Museum has more than 3,500 twitter followers. Our marketing Over the past year, the Service, with campaigns now include a substantial caterers Searcys, has developed the digital element and the campaigns for Roman Baths Kitchen cafe. The focus in families have included popular on-line 2013-14 has been to develop evening competitions. In addition to our own business, so a highly successful Twilight campaigns, we have participated in Tour package was promoted in the main “access for all” and “romantic breaks” summer marketing campaign for the initiatives with Visit Britain and the Roman Baths. More than 800 people city-wide promotion of everything opted to have a meal in the Roman Georgian undertaken jointly by all the Baths Kitchen followed by an evening museums in Bath. tour of the Baths. This was so successful that it has been continued throughout More than 100 press releases issued in winter 2013-14, with accompanying the year resulted in local, national and publicity. international coverage. We were particularly successful in attracting We also welcomed the Association of filming, from BBC Sacred Places with Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) to Neil Oliver to The One Show, Fake or Bath for its Council meeting in Fortune and Warner Brothers’ Jupiter September 2013. Rising. The biggest and most disruptive event was Children in Need, which Pat Dunlop reached a live audience of 9.8 million Commercial Manager people.

9 The new World Heritage Site DVD now on sale Museums Shops at the Roman Baths Shop.

Retail Sales in 2013/14 ended the year ‘The City of Bath World Heritage Site’ 10% up on target at £1,923,853 with an which charts the history of Bath from the increase over the 2012/13 figures of 10%. earliest times to the present day. This DVD will be popular with our visitors, On the Roman Baths site the number of corporate clients and Council colleagues customers served saw a small increase alike. We have sourced a range of over target of 2% and 6% when confectionery from a local artisan THE CITY OF

compared to 2012/13. This was largely chocolate maker which features WORLD HERITAGE SITE achieved by the main shop which saw an unusual flavours. increase of 6% over target. Sales per R80958 square foot in the main shop at the Merchandise with a flowery feel was Bath, a city so beautiful and special that it has been designated a World Heritage Site. Roman Baths at £1,261 over-achieved sourced for the Fashion Museum shop This DVD charts the history of Bath from earliest times to the present day.

©2014 Heritage Services, target by 12%. to support the Laura Ashley, Romantic Bath & North East Somerset Council Heroine exhibition. The supporting guide The average spend per customer in the book sold over 1,200 copies during the Lower Museum shop at the Roman show. The shop at the Fashion Museum New merchandise in the refurbished Baths saw a 11% increase over target was refurbished in January 2014 with a shop at the Fashion Museum. contributing to 8% increase overall across contemporary Georgian feel and the the shops on site at £7.45, an increase of product range refigured. 50p per customer over the previous year. At the Assembly Rooms shop the Merchandise reflecting the changing average spend per customer saw a 13% exhibition programme at the Victoria Art increase over target and a 10% increase Gallery included limited edition prints by over the previous year; however the the artist David Inshaw whose painting number of customers fell 13% below The Badminton Game was on display target and 1% below the previous year. proved very popular with customers.

Product development this year included Judith Zedner the production of a bespoke DVD called Retail Services Manager Room Hire

After a depressed year in 2012-13, bookings has changed. There has been in Bath in September. Bath Festivals 2013/14 started slowly but picked up a growth in wedding enquiries for smaller again organised a spectacular opera in well in the second and third quarters, numbers with quirky ceremonies in more the Roman Baths, this time Dido and particularly at the Assembly Rooms intimate spaces. The biggest change has Aeneas. The most significant filming to which performed above budget for every been the popularity of ‘sunset take place was a live BBC broadcast from month from July to January. Events at ceremonies’ around the Baths and an the Roman Baths for Children in Need. the Pump Room finished slightly down average of 4 to 5 sunset weddings per on target, mainly due to a number of month now take place beside the Great Tom Deller cancelled bookings in March. Bath. Corporate Hospitality Manager

2013-14 showed signs of optimism in Most clients use the internet as their the market with an increase in both the primary research tool when organising an number and nature of corporate event but social media are becoming enquiries. However people are booking increasing important. Bath’s Historic shorter events, often on an ad hoc basis Venues now have over 2000 followers on and with ever shorter lead times; the Twitter and about 1000 via Facebook. average lead time for the sort of events we attract is less than three months. Notable events in 2013-14 included: Short lead times also make forecasting dinners for the Oxford Law Society, BMI, more difficult and demonstrating a Parragon Books, and Bath Rugby measurable return has also become Community and conferences for XPlay, more important to corporate clients. Regen SW, International Association of the Study of Pain and the Association of The weddings business has remained Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) whose A new dining opportunity is now available within relatively strong, but the pattern of autumn conference and dinner was held the museum exhibits at the Roman Baths.

10 Above: BBC TV presenters Alex Lovell and David Garmston with Pudsey Bear at Children in Need at the Roman Baths. Top right: Tai Chi on the terrace led by Paddy Nisbet. Left: Wang Pu (Tina) recording her podcast in Chinese for the Roman Baths website. Right: New costumed character Major C E Davis, excavator of the Roman Baths in the 1880s.

Roman Baths & Pump Room

The Roman Society hosted a lecture in century. The Victorian tenor of the tour is Development work during the year the Pump Room by prize-winning set by offering participants tea or sherry included: Classics writer and Guardian Arts before setting off. Correspondent Charlotte Higgins as part • Re-display of the Temple Precinct with of Bath Literature Development work on the Beau Street a new step-free walkway installed, Festival programme. Literary links were Hoard project continued through the year bringing us closer to the day when developed further in partnership with the and in March we were delighted to hear there will be full wheelchair access to Theatre Royal and the Ustinov for that the Heritage Lottery Fund had joined the entire Roman Baths site; Shakespeare Unplugged in which five other organisations in giving grant aid • Replacement of the Pump Room roof sell-out audiences saw Cymbeline and to support the project. This will be with new Welsh slates; Antony and Cleopatra performed as implemented during 2014/15. • Conservation of the exterior elevations promenade theatre around the Roman facing Abbey Church Yard and Baths by local young performers. Other highlights of the year included: Kingston Parade, including re-gilding of the Greek lettering on the Pump Room Theatrical performance extended to • Visitor numbers topped the million – Áriston mèn hýdõr – or “of all things opera at the Baths in the summer thanks mark with a day to spare; water is best” from an Olympian ode to the International Music Festival. • Pudsey Bear arrived in a Tardis as the by 5th century BC poet Pindar; Museums at Night in May also had a BBC broadcast the South West • Tai Chi on the Terrace was trialled in musical theme and in the spring the site contribution to the annual Children in February, demonstrating how a was transformed into a science lab for Need appeal from the Baths in heritage venue can contribute to the Science and Engineering week. November; Council’s health and well-being • Wang Pu (known as Tina), a curator agenda. Major Davis, the discoverer of the Roman from the Imperial Palace Museum in Baths in the 1870s, made his debut as a Nanjing, worked here for 6 weeks on a Stephen Clews new costumed character leading special British Council cultural exchange Roman Baths & Pump Room Manager tours in and around the building in the programme. Tina produced a podcast evening. His object in returning is to in Chinese about Minerva’s Head defend his reputation from some adverse which is now on our Chinese language comments made about him in the 20th website.

11 Antony and Cleopatra in the Roman Baths as part of the Shakespeare Unplugged programme.

Learning & Programmes

Our programme of events out in the Our schools programme develops each community and around the district year with new learning activities at our continues to develop. During the year we sites responding to the changing have celebrated several national and exhibition programme both at the Victoria local initiatives. Art Gallery and the Fashion Museum. Children in groups attending teaching • World Heritage Day – working with the sessions numbered: World Heritage Manager and Bath Preservation Trust Roman Baths – 10,811 • NSEW and Bath taps into Science Fashion Museum – 1,538 – working with the University of Bath Victoria Art Gallery – 2,291 • Museums at Night – working on site in Above: Getting to grips with Roman pottery our museums as part of this national A special project in 2013 was working at an object-handling session. campaign and delivering a seminar in with The Prince’s Foundation for Children Below: Having a go at Georgian Dancing at Birmingham about joint working within & The Arts and three secondary schools the Assembly Rooms as part of Museums Bath & North East Somerset from the surrounding area. We at Night 2013. • Festival of Archaeology – working with welcomed visits at the Fashion Museum the National Trust at Prior Park and working with a designer and • Heritage Open Days – working with museum learning workshop leader to several charities and organisations help students develop their fashion and locally textile skills. The term’s project resulted in • Heritage Open Week – working with a celebration event in the Assembly museums and heritage sites in the area Rooms and a small display in the • Talks – 6 talks in conjunction with the Fashion Museum for the summer Victoria Art Gallery’s exhibition Bath holidays. and the Great Western Railway in Art. Lindsey Braidley Learning & Programmes Co-ordinator

12 Main image: Guided tour of the Fashion Museum by VSA Ruth Riley. Below: Staff training in the Roman Baths shop. These lamps are now flying off the shelves!

Visitor Services

Awards: – All staff were engaged, helpful and • the creation of laminated cards on Roman Baths: friendly; lanyards to give staff interesting facts • Roman Baths Silver Award winner in – Good evidence of continuing and selling points for key items the VisitEngland Large Visitor Attraction improvement and thinking of • photos of the site to help visitors of the Year Awards 2013 customers all the time; understand more; • The judges wrote, “This unique – Tour organisers reported that staff • interactions with Roman Baths queues attraction has enjoyed its best visitor bend over backwards and are to upsell the guide book and promote numbers for twenty five years. Their unbelievably helpful; the visit; aim to make it more physically and – Complaints handling – a really good • Fashion Museum tours have been intellectually accessible and introduce audit trail, resulting in an additional revamped and now include “my people-led family-friendly interpretation ‘Compliance Plus’ for best practice, favourite exhibit”. has certainly worked – the presentation bringing the total of Compliance Plus and interpretation is second to none. scores to 10. Apprenticeships and placements: Combine that with the engaging • James Cayford successfully completed knowledgeable staff and a visitor Front-of-house staff development: his Heritage Apprenticeship and is now experience to remember is achieved – Staff have worked hard to develop new working with the Visitor Services Team. and happy memories remain”. engagement skills and background • 46 work experience students from • 2013 Trip Advisor Travellers’ Choice® knowledge. This has had a market effect local schools and from as far away as Winner “Attractions” with: America, on 1or 2 week work placements at the Roman Baths and Heritage Services overall: • improved upselling in the shops Fashion Museum. • Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance through informal engagements – the • As well as introducing students to the Scheme (VAQAS) – all sites mosaic fragrance lamps have been world of work, they make a valuable reaccredited; flying off the shelf! contribution to the Visitor Services • Customer Service Excellence (CSE) • creation of stock books with product team in helping our visitors. – the Service again retained the information and site information to help Standard in Year 1 of the rolling visitors; Katie Smith programme. The assessor said it was • new resource libraries for staff to learn Visitor Services Manager a really good experience and noted: more about the history of the collections and the buildings

13 Management Plan 2010-2016

tHe city of

World Heritage Site

Submission draft: this draft has been endorsed by full council on 16 November 2010 and by Single cabinet Member decision on 29 december 2010

Supported by

Left: Special tour of the Georgian Garden during World Heritage Day 2013. Top: The World Heritage symbol in Stall Street. AboveThe World Heritage Management Plan 2010-2016. Focus on World Heritage

The City of Bath was awarded the highly and implements a management plan improvements across the site. Working coveted World Heritage status in 1987. under guidance from a steering group with local craftspeople, the fund has The global status and credibility of the comprised of leading local and national undertaken work such as repair of World Heritage brand continues to grow bodies. This group is in turn led by an incised street signs (x21), restoration of and it is recognised as a highly important independent chairperson. A new statues, milestones and historic validation of Bath’s outstanding cultural Steering Group Chairman, Peter streetlights. offer and as a key economic driver. Metcalfe, has been appointed this year. The current World Heritage Management Finally, being a specialist branch of A post to manage World Heritage Plan is mid-way through its 2010-2016 heritage management World Heritage responsibilities was initially created in the lifespan and this year has therefore attracts considerable academic interest, Council’s Planning Department. As provided an opportunity to review and we have engaged this year with planning law provides our principal progress, and look to the next phase of institutions from Bath, Dublin, Cardiff, physical protection it was important to action. Glasgow, Ironbridge, Moscow and Notre ensure appropriate mechanisms were in Dame (USA) amongst others. place. With this achieved, and with Across the city, a number of historic sites recognition that World Heritage have demonstrated a desire to invest in Tony Crouch management covers a wide range of their future by submitting Heritage Lottery World Heritage Manager Council functions, the full-time World Fund bids. Significant bids have come Heritage Manager post was moved to a forward from Bath Abbey, the Roman higher level within the organisation and Baths, Cleveland Pools and Sydney was this year transferred to Heritage Gardens, with a further bid focused on Services. the landscape setting of the city under preparation. Whilst all bids are unlikely to World Heritage status covers the entire succeed immediately, this does City of Bath. This clearly involves multiple demonstrate healthy and active agencies and individuals, and management of our historic environment. accordingly management is undertaken on a partnership basis. The Council (as A small grant fund, named the World chief site steward) provides the lead, and Heritage Enhancement Fund, is now in the World Heritage Manager produces its fifth year, and continues to deliver

14 Bath Spa University Performing Arts students enacting W H Auden’s The Night Mail at the Victoria Art Gallery’s launch of its exhibition Bath and the Great Western Railway in Art. How to contact us with enquiries 1 2 3 4 about this Annual Review 2013/14 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 Head of Heritage Services Pump Room, Stall Street, Bath BA1 1LZ 13 14 15 16 01225 477760 Front cover photographs: Roman Baths 01225 477774 [email protected] 1. Bath Spa University performing arts students acting out WH Auden’s poem The Night Mail at the opening of Bath and the Great Western Railway at Fashion Museum the Victoria Art Gallery 01225 477754 [email protected] 2. Pulteney’s 13th Regiment of Foot, World Heritage Day April 2013 Victoria Art Gallery 01225 477232 [email protected] 3. Stephen Clews and Katie Smith receiving the Silver Award, Large Visitor Attraction of the Year 2013, from Viscountess Cobham, Chair of Visit Bath Record Office, Guildhall England 01225 477421 [email protected] 4. Pudsey Bear at the BBC Children in Need Learning and Programmes broadcast from the Roman Baths 01225 477757 [email protected] 5. Henry Moore, Seated figure against curved wall, 1956-57 (detail) © The Henry Moore Foundation. World Heritage Management All rights reserved, DACS 2014 01225 477584 [email protected] 6. Dr Elena Gagarina, Director of the Kremlin Museums, Moscow, speaking at the Victoria Art Museum Shops Gallery civic reception 01225 477796/95 [email protected] 7. The recently conserved Captain William Wade, Master of Ceremonies at Bath 1770-71 (detail) Bath’s Historic Venues by Thomas Gainsborough 01225 477786/82 [email protected] 8. Detail from a nurse’s sketchbook from Combe Park Hospital 1914 acquired by Bath Record Pump Room Restaurant Office 01225 444477 [email protected] 9. Elaine Uttley preparing for the Laura Ashley: The Romantic Heroine exhibition at the Roman Baths Kitchen Café Assembly Rooms 01225 477877 [email protected] 10. Celebrations for a Jewish wedding at the Assembly Rooms 11. Shoppers browsing in the newly-refurbished romanbaths.co.uk @RomanBathsBath Fashion Museum shop fashionmuseum.co.uk @Fashion_Museum 12. Fashion Museum Dress of the Year 2013, victoriagal.org.uk @VictoriaArtBath designed by Christopher Kane and chosen by bathvenues.co.uk @BathVenues fashion blogger Susanna Lau batharchives.co.uk 13. Music by The Lambeth Swing at Museums at Night 2013 in the Roman Baths 14. A happy participant at ‘The Big Draw’ workshop at the Fashion Museum and Assembly Rooms 15. Detail of the Beau Street Hoard, which received a major Lottery grant of £372,500 16. Peter Brown with his painting Sunset from Bathwick Fields at the Victoria Art Gallery

This Annual Review can be made available in a range Published by Bath and North East Somerset Council Heritage Services of community languages, large print, Braille, on tape, Print procured by the Council’s electronic and accessible formats. Print Services, June 2014