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We've included every museum in London. Use the filters to find something for you.
British history told through faces, from the Chandos Shakespeare to last year's photographs, reopened in 2023 with far more room.
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Also in Art.
The National Portrait Gallery was the first in the world given over to portraits, founded in 1856 on the principle that a picture is here for who sat for it, not who painted it. The Earl of Stanhope proposed it three times in Parliament before the Lords agreed, the Commons voted £2,000, and the first portrait given was the Chandos picture of Shakespeare, the most famous likeness of him and quite possibly not him at all. After forty years in borrowed rooms the collection moved in 1896 into Ewan Christian's Portland stone building beside the National Gallery, paid for by an £80,000 gift.
The rule still holds, which is why the gallery is history first and art second: the Ditchley portrait of Elizabeth I standing on a map of England, the Brontë sisters painted by their brother Branwell, and rooms of photographs of the living, allowed only since 1969. A £41 million rebuilding by Jamie Fobert closed the gallery from 2020 to 2023 and gave it a new entrance on the north side through three bronze doors etched with Tracey Emin's drawings of women, the Blavatnik Wing of nine galleries for the last century of portraits, and a great deal more of the collection on the walls, with women and living sitters far better represented than before. Entry is free.
| Monday | 10:30 – 18:00 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 10:30 – 18:00 |
| Wednesday | 10:30 – 18:00 |
| Thursday | 10:30 – 18:00 |
| Friday | 10:30 – 21:00 |
| Saturday | 10:30 – 21:00 |
| Sunday | 10:30 – 18:00 |
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.