National Trust plans immersive experience at Bath Assembly Rooms

The National Trust has appointed design and build practice Sarner to create a new immersive visitor experience at the iconic Bath Assembly Rooms.

Designed by John Wood the Younger in 1769, the Assembly Rooms are located in the heart of the World Heritage City of Bath, UK.

In their time, the Assembly Rooms were hugely important to the society of Georgian Bath and were known all over England as the place to be seen and entertained.

Among those to have visited the rooms were composers George Frideric Handel and Franz Joseph Haydn as well as a huge number of authors, from Samuel Johnson and Charles Dickens to Jane Austen – many of whom included the Assembly Rooms in their novels.

Owned by the National Trust and operated by Bath & North East Somerset Council, the rooms have become a very popular visitor attraction.

Sarner's appointment is part of plans to reinvent and re-imagine the rooms and to share the history of the place.

The new attraction will highlight the important role the building played in society, in a way that will "entertain and intrigue 21st-century visitors".

Sarner said the new additions will take visitors along a "dynamic journey through the rich, multisensory life of Georgian Bath".

Ed Cookson, projects director, Sarner International, said: “This is a unique opportunity to create a world-class heritage attraction that will explore the incredible story of Georgian Bath in an iconic building that was the heart of its social scene in the late 18th century.

"The new attraction will be an interactive and immersive experience that brings the history, complexity, and legacy to life for today’s local, national, and international audiences.”