Something old, something new

Very last chance to see the inaugural exhibition at the magnificently revamped Holburne Museum — a selection from the collections of Peter Blake, together with some of his own work. If, as Geoffrey Grigson suggested, the mind is an anthology, and the museum case or exhibition is a map of that mind, then what a remarkably diverse but ordered person Mr Blake must be. The new temporary exhibition gallery at the top of the Holburne’s new wing is filled with images of fantasy, dream and even nightmare, but everything is calmly laid out with great clarity and precision. The result is obsessional but intriguing.

The museum reopened in May, its Grade 1 listed building restored and extended by Eric Parry Architects, the grand staircase moved, and the new spaces locked together with the old in a way that makes a harmonious and workable whole. The building stands at the top of Great Pulteney Street, looking down towards the river and the town, with Sydney Gardens at its rear. The original façade is unchanged, as the extension is at the back of the building, reconnecting it with the park in which it is situated, and giving it, in effect, a new (garden) front. The glass box of the extension is articulated by, and constructed around, a series of vertical ceramic beams, subtly mottled like old copper. On the ground floor a spacious café looks out on to the gardens through appropriately transparent walls.

The glass and ceramic extension blends surprisingly well with the warm honey tones of the original Bath stone, details of which are newly visible from inside the extension. I used to visit the old museum quite often when I had a flat in Bath, and the changes are remarkable. The building has been opened up and restored, provided with 80 per cent more display space and a variety of vistas between the rooms, linking inside and outside.