It is a Grade II* listed building and houses over 1,500 objects of art including a collection of oil paintings from British artists dating from 1700 onwards.

There are nine bays on Bridge Street and one on Grand Parade and each floor consists mainly of one large rectangular room.

The Upper Gallery is lit by a range of skylights and has a coved ceiling, a copy in plaster of the Parthenon frieze, and a panelled dado with triglyphs.

It is run by Bath and North East Somerset council and houses their collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts.

[4] Cuts to funding from central government now mean that it has introduced charges for entrance to temporary exhibitions for the first time since the gallery was opened.