The National Gallery

The National Gallery is one of the capital’s great treasures. To help you with your visit, we’ve put together the ultimate guide to the National Gallery. Enjoy!

The National Gallery is one of the most stunning art galleries in the whole of London. It is well worth a trip on your visit to London, boasting a wide variety of world famous paintings, including those of Van Gogh, Matisse, and Caravaggio.
Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein in 1824. After that initial purchase the Gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which today account for two-thirds of the collection. The collection is small compared with many European national galleries, but encyclopaedic in scope; most major developments in Western painting “from Giotto to Cézanne” are represented with important works. It used to be claimed that this was one of the few national galleries that had all its works on permanent exhibition, but this is no longer the case. The vast majority of the works are free to see though, making a trip to the National Gallery a real must!
You can find out more about the National Gallery on our amazing London Walking Tour. You can find out more about Footprints’ London walking tour here.

Daily: 10.00-18.00
Friday: 10.00-21.00

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