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Opening times

Booking and visiting

Getting here

Computers and internet access

Membership cards

Accessibility

Booking an appointment

Appointments are essential as space is limited.

Appointments are available on Tuesday to Friday at 10am-1pm or 2pm-5pm (4.30pm Friday).
Appointments must be made 48 hours in advance.
Appointments will normally be limited to one morning or one afternoon session per day in the first instance. Please respect this to enable as many people as possible to have the chance to book a session.
Please let us know if you are booking space for more than one person as space is limited.

You will need to provide the following information when making a booking:

Your full name, address, email address or phone number.
Document references for pre-ordering or a detailed description of your research subject.
If you require either a microfilm reader or public access computer, then you can make a specific booking for these resources.

Pre-ordering documents

When you arrive

We encourage all of our visitors to travel to us as sustainably as possible.

By train

On foot

By bus or coach

By bike

By car

By plane

Computers and internet access

We provide Wi-Fi, computers and microfilm readers are available for public use, all free of charge.

We offer free access to the following subscription websites:

Ancestry
Find My Past
British Newspaper Archive

You can also access non-subscription websites which may be relevant to your research - there are more details on the Family History Online Resources page for sites of particular interest. Staff will be happy to help and advise you.

To avoid disappointment, please contact us to make an appointment before visiting to use the computers. As we only have a licence for one user at a time on Find My Past we strongly recommend you book an appointment to guarantee access to this website.

You are also welcome to use your own laptops or other devices, and can access the subscription sites through our wi-fi connection.

If you are a Bath and North East Somerset library card holder, you can also access a large number of online sources from Library's Digital Facilities and Resources page including: the Times Digital Archive, Who's Who, the Dictionary of National Biography and several other reference sources published by the OUP.

Accessibility

We do our best to meet visitors' access requirements, so please do not hesitate to ask if there is anything we can do to help you when you visit.

The Record Office is located in the Guildhall basement and access is via stairs. For users who require level access, we will be happy to bring documents and other resources to a room on the ground floor - please contact us before visiting, so that we can make the necessary arrangements.

There is a lift which visitors who find stairs difficult may use, but in the event of a fire alarm the lift cannot be used and all visitors will need to leave the building by a short flight of stairs.

An accessible toilet is available on the ground floor of the Guildhall.

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Explore Bath's world heritage

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