The building was designed in 1897 by
John McKean Brydon, and has been designated as a Grade II*
listed building. It originally was partly used as a public library but was converted in 1990 to house and display only art works. The building is constructed of limestone
ashlar rendered in its upper half and occupies a corner site. It is a two storey building with an attic tower with a lead-covered dome. There are nine bays on Bridge Street and one on Grand Parade and each floor consists mainly of one large rectangular room. A flight of stone steps rises to the circular entrance hall which leads to the former library. The main stair is approached through an arch and is a seventeenth century revival stair made of mahogany with bulbous balusters. The ceiling is barrel-vaulted. The upper landing has Ionic marble columns and a coffered dome, embossed with signs of the
Zodiac in relief. 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. The council offices, the
Guildhall, continue the building to the south-west. The Gallery was named to celebrate Queen Victoria's sixty years on the throne. It is run by
Bath and North East Somerset council and houses their collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts. ==The collection==