london art gallery virtual tour

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Visitors standing in the Parthenon gallery (Room 18)

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Visiting the galleries

Opening times.

Daily: 10.00–17.00 See full  opening hours

Explore more than 60 galleries at the British Museum from home.

Our gallery pages feature a range of exciting resources, including virtual tours with Google Street View, object highlights, timelines, family activities and facts.

Below you'll find a list of galleries on the lower floor, ground floor and upper floors, together with two galleries created especially for our online audience,  Oceania  and  Prints and Drawings .

Please note that galleries in the Museum may be closed for maintenance, refurbishment or private events. All planned closures will be listed on the Visit page . Occasionally we may need to close galleries at short notice for safety reasons. We regret that in these cases we're not always able to alert the public in advance. 

Museum highlights

Egyptian sculpture gallery

Sutton Hoo and Europe

Roman Empire

Lower floor.

Room 25 ( The Sainsbury Galleries )

Ground floor

Enlightenment

Collecting the world

The Waddesdon Bequest

Room 2a (funded by The Rothschild Foundation)  

Egyptian sculpture

Assyrian sculpture and Balawat Gates

Assyria: Nimrud

Assyria: Nineveh

Assyria: Lion hunts, Siege of Lachish and Khorsabad

Greece: Minoans and Mycenaeans

Room 12 ( The Arthur I Fleischman Gallery)

Greece 1050–520 BC

Greek vases

Athens and Lycia

Greece: Bassai sculptures

Nereid Monument

Greece: Parthenon

Greece: Athens

Greeks and Lycians 400–325 BC

Mausoleum of Halikarnassos

The world of Alexander

Greek and Roman sculpture

Living and Dying

Room 24 ( The Wellcome Trust Gallery )

North America

Great Court

East stairs

Upper floors

China and South Asia

Room 33 ( The Sir Joseph Hotung Gallery )

India: Amaravati

Room 33a ( The Asahi Shimbun Gallery )

Chinese jade

Room 33b ( The Selwyn and Ellie Alleyne Gallery )

Clocks and watches

Rooms 38–39 ( The Sir Harry and Lady Djanogly Gallery )

Medieval Europe, 1050–1500

Room 40 ( The Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery )

Sutton Hoo and Europe, AD 300–1100

Room 41 ( The Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery )

The Islamic world

Rooms 42–43 ( The Albukhary Foundation Gallery )

Europe 1400–1800

Europe 1800–1900

Europe 1900 to the present

Roman Britain

Room 49 ( The Weston Gallery )

Britain and Europe 800 BC–AD 43

Europe and Middle East 10,000–800 BC

Room 51 ( The Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Gallery )

Ancient Iran

Room 52 ( The Rahim Irvani Gallery )

Ancient South Arabia

Anatolia and Urartu, 7000–300 BC

Mesopotamia, 1500–539 BC

Mesopotamia, 6000–1500 BC

Ancient Levant

Rooms 57–59

Egyptian life and death: the tomb-chapel of Nebamun

Room 61 ( The Michael Cohen Gallery )

Egyptian death and afterlife: mummies

Rooms 62–63 ( The Roxie Walker Galleries )

Early Egypt

Sudan, Egypt and Nubia

Ethiopia and Coptic Egypt

Room 67  (The Korea Foundation Gallery)

Greek and Roman life

Room 70 ( The Wolfson Gallery )

Etruscan world

Ancient Cyprus

Room 72 ( The A.G. Leventis Gallery )

Greeks in Italy

Prints and drawings displays

Rooms 90 and 90a

Rooms 92–94 ( The Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries )

Chinese Ceramics – Sir Percival David Collection

Room 95 ( The Sir Joseph Hotung Centre for Ceramic Studies )

Virtual galleries

Virtual gallery

Prints and drawings

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You can do virtual tours of almost every major London museum and gallery

Life without art and museums is just a whole lot of Netflix and cheap lager, that’s what self-isolation has taught me. Good heavens, I miss museums. The smell, the light, the people, the ART. I really miss art. But it’s good to know that way before everything went crazy last year, most of London’s museums digitised their collections and even created virtual tours of their spaces. If you miss those places as much as I do, especially now that we're deep into yet another lockdown, then this might just be the balm your restless soul needs. From Tate Modern through to the Natural History Museum, here are our favourite virtual tours of our most beloved London cultural institutions.

Tate Modern

Photograph: Facebook/Tate

The Tate’s collection is staggering: Monet, Picasso, Rothko, all the big names. In this tour, Tate Modern’s director Frances Morris takes you on a tour of one of the Tate’s new buildings, showing you works by Louise Bourgeois, Carl Andre and plenty of others. For some reason, Nick Grimshaw’s there too. I don’t know why. I don’t like it.

The Courtauld Gallery of Art

Photograph: Courtauld

This is a virtual tour of a museum that was shut even before the current crisis. The Courtauld’s been closed for refurbishment for ages, but cleverly created this digital tour for posterity’s sake. It’s room by room, so start at the beginning with Cranach the Elder’s ‘Adam and Eve’, scoot through the portraits of old dead people in room four and then head straight for the Impressionist and modernist delights of rooms six and seven. Van Gogh, Manet, Kandinsky? Yes please!

The National Portrait Gallery

Photograph: National Portrait Gallery

Ah, London’s museum Marmite. The NPG is filled with stuff you either love or despise with a hatred so intense it’s all-consuming. ‘The Cholmondeley Ladies’ painting? Amazing, love it. The portrait of Ed Sheeran? I’d rather stab my eyes out with a pair of tweezers. But don’t listen to me, take the tour and decide for yourself.

The National Gallery

Photograph: National Gallery

This one’s done in collaboration with Google Street View, so you get all the thrills of scouring your local streets to see if they caught you picking your nose, but with paintings instead. The National Gallery’s collection has some of the greatest artists who ever lived – Renaissance masters, Baroque painters and Impressionist adventurers – and there is nowhere better to lose yourself for an afternoon in London. Plus, you get to stand in exactly the right spot to see the skull straighten out in Holbein’s ‘The Ambassadors’. And online, there are no Italian schoolkids with giant backpacks getting between you and the Raphael. Heaven.

The British Museum

Photograph: British Museum

Woo, things were hotting up for a while there with Brexit. As Britain formally withdrew from the European Union, bills were being drafted in Brussels that would basically force the British Museum to give the Parthenon Marbles back to Greece. The CV crisis has put the kibosh on all that for now, so there are probably some very relieved people at the BM. But in the meantime, let’s all enjoy it online while we can (and the mummies, obviously: everyone loves the mummies).

Want more virtual art exhibitions? Have a look at this heartbreaking show we’ve part-hosted  here .

Then check out more   virtual tours of museums around the world .

• Eddy Frankel Art & Culture Editor

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The Courtauld is home to one of the world’s great art collections, located in the magnificent historical setting of Somerset House in central London. Book your visit now to see one of the most renowned art collections in the UK, including iconic Impressionist masterpieces such as Manet’s A Bar at the Folies Berg ère  and Van Gogh’s  Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear.

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You can now book your visit to see our much-loved collection of masterpieces ranging from the Middle Ages to the 20th century....

Exhibition, The Courtauld Gallery, What's On Highlights

Frank Auerbach. The Charcoal Heads

9 Feb – 27 May 2024

A remarkable group of large-scale drawings by Frank Auerbach is being presented together for the first time at The Courtauld Gallery....

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From the Baroque to Today: New Acquisitions of Works on Paper

23 Feb - 27 May 2024

This display will present a selection of drawings and prints acquired by The Courtauld since 2018, including works by Mary Cassatt, Sir Grayson Perry and Susan Schwalb....

Jasper Johns: The Seasons

28 Feb - 12 May 2024

This display will present prints inspired by the four seasons, by pioneering American artist Jasper Johns (b.1930) ....

Coming Soon: Summer at The Courtauld Gallery

Roger Mayne: Youth

14 June – 1 Sep 2024 

An exhibition of works by photographer Roger Mayne, bringing together his evocative documentary images of communities and neighbourhoods of 1950's inner London, alongside intimate images of his own family at home in Dorset in the 1970s....

Vanessa Bell: A Pioneer of Modern Art

25 May – 6 Oct 2024 

This display will be the first devoted to The Courtauld's significant collection of Vanessa Bell’s work, including her masterpiece A Conversation, and the bold, abstract textile designs she produced for the Omega Workshops....

Henry Moore: Shadows on the Wall

8 June – 22 Sep 2024 

This exhibition, a collaboration with Henry Moore Foundation, considers Henry Moore’s (1898 – 1986) celebrated Shelter drawings as the point of departure for a new reading of the artist’s fascination with images of the wall. ...

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The Courtauld Lates – Frank Auerbach

6:30pm, 24 May 2024 | Over 18s only. £5- £14

Join us for The Courtauld Lates, a series of after-hours art, cocktails and music, and a last chance to experience our latest exhibition....

2024 Exhibitions

Monet and London. Views of the Thames

27 Sep 2024 – 19 Jan 2025

An exhibition reuniting for the first time in 120 years an extraordinary group of Claude Monet’s Impressionist paintings of London, depicting Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, and the Houses of Parliament....

2024 Displays

Drawn to Blue: Artists’ use of blue paper

2 October 2024 – 26 January 2025

This display will present a selection of drawings on blue paper from The Courtauld’s collection, ranging from works by the Venetian Renaissance artist Jacopo Tintoretto to an Indian landscape by German-born artist Johann Zoffany....

Multiplied: A Medieval Ivory and its Reproductions

19 Oct 2024 - 16 Feb 2025

This display draws from the collections of The Courtauld and V&A to explore how different technologies of reproduction have shaped encounters with artworks since the 19th century....

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14 Of London’s Very Best Virtual Museum And Exhibition Tours

Chances are you’re twiddling your thumbs, aching to go out.

Join the club. But there are still lots of ways you can pass the time, while also feeling like you’re out in the heart of London culture. While there are countless virtual tours that you can dive into around the world , many of the most wonderful online museums, exhibitions and walking tours can be found on London soil. We’ve rounded up some of the best.

1. Greenwich Painted Hall

The beautiful Greenwich Painted Hall only reopened after works a year ago . So, only a lucky percentage have seen it in all its glory in recent years. Nevertheless, keen art-lovers can still catch the marvellous paintings online. You’ll get beautiful 360-degree views of the hall, including the stunning benches, windows and full-wall murals.

Check out Greenwich Hall with the full stunning surfaces right here.

2. British Museum 

View this post on Instagram

Take a scrolling stroll around the British Museum and head through their virtual time-capsule. You’ll make Marty McFly look like a fool with this one, as the tool lets you look at artefacts from as far back as 5000 BC. This site gives you a tour of any year, whether it’s 1400 AD or 2000 BC. It beckons the nation to come out of the lockdown as well-rounded, esteemed historians.

Take the scroll of your life through the British Museum right here.

3. Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum was one of the first London museums to close its doors , before all the others were ordered to follow suit. But, if Ben Stiller taught us anything, it’s that life lives on in museums regardless of human movement inside. The dinosaurs, the blue whales and the scary skulls are all on hand to provide us with a cracking virtual display. The museum’s website gives a host of options on ways to interact with all things natural and historic. The pick of the bunch, however, has to be a guided interactive tour of Hintze Hall led by none other than Sir David Attenborough .

Check out the vast array of museum tour opportunities right here. 

4. Yayoi Kusama’s world-renowned Infinity Rooms, which were due to hit the Tate Modern

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by The Broad (@thebroadmuseum) on Apr 1, 2020 at 7:12pm PDT

Yayoi Kusama’s spectacular Infinity Rooms have gripped the public as they make their way to different stops around the globe. Kusama’s Infinity Rooms are chambers just big enough for three people, filled with stunning beams of light for a unique, individual experience. They were due to hit the Tate Modern on 11 May , but sadly have been halted due to COVID-19. Never fear, Instagram is here. The Broad Museum has provided an interactive view of Kusama’s room via the app , which aims to transport you from your sofa to the radiant glow of infinity.

5. Jack The Ripper walking tour

Take yourself out to the spooky spots that Jack The Ripper once roamed through… all from the safety of your own home. In this thrilling tour, you’ll learn about London’s most notorious serial killer, his victims and even investigate other alleged perpetrators. The historical tour displays the Whitechapel crime scenes and lets you draw up your own conclusions about the never-caught killer himself. It’s the most detailed and all-consuming virtual tour you can experience from lockdown.

Find out more about the spooky tour and grab your tickets right here.

6. The Postal Museum

As the magic of the  Postal Museum  remains behind closed doors due to the coronavirus, virtual visitors are able to hop on board the museum’s star attraction: the famous Mail Rail. “Passengers” on the virtual tour will explore the hidden subterranean world of the 100-year-old Post Office Railway, chugging its way through the original tunnels.

Read all about it and get involved here.

7. The National Gallery

The National Gallery provides detailed virtual tours of their different wings. See everything from early renaissance paintings, to 360-degree views of Holstein and Titian. It’s a world to get lost in and immerse yourself in the best art the capital has to offer.

Check out the virtual tours of The National Gallery on offer here.

8. The London Transport Museum

If you’ve got time to kill, this is an excellent, detailed walking tour of the London Transport Museum. As it was filmed this time last year, the crowds in the museum might make you pine for the days where you could join them. It’s a great way to get to grips with London’s historic travel company.

9. Houses of Parliament

While they’re normally bellowing away here, even the MPs are mostly working from home. No matter how you feel they’re handling this ongoing crisis, it doesn’t mean you can’t get a feel for the historic buildings they normally grace. This 360-degree virtual tour lets you wander through the Commons, the Lords and the lobbies, halls and galleries that make up the Houses Of Parliament.

Check out the Houses Of Parliament virtual tour here.

10. Buckingham Palace State Tour Rooms

As it’s the Queen’s birthday this week (April 21), it would be remiss of us not to let you know about the Buckingham Palace virtual tours . Check out the majestic throne room, the grand staircase, the drawing-room and much more. Truly the most royal you can feel at a time like this.

Check out the Buckingham Palace State Room tours right here.

11.  Courtauld Gallery

The Courtauld Gallery has past experience in getting this kind of thing to work. It closed its doors temporarily in September 2018, and offered viewers a virtual tour. This has, of course, come in handy for the current situation. Anyone can gawk at the beautiful work of Manet, Van Gogh and plenty more with a virtual display of every single room.

Check out the full Courtauld Gallery tour right here.

12.  Saatchi Gallery’s ‘Tutanhkamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh‘ exhibit

The Tutankhamun exhibit was one of the hottest tickets in town prior to lockdown—and one of the final chances to see the artefacts before their permanent move to Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum—so news of the online tour is welcome indeed. The gallery invites you to “Enter The Tomb” where you’re able to check out prized artefacts such as vases, coffinettes, and statues.

13. Andy Warhol at Tate Modern

Mainly down to the brilliant weather that London has so typically experienced as soon as everyone got forced inside, this is one that hurts a lot. A day out on the sunny Southbank topped off by cooling down at this Andy Warhol exhibition sounds like complete heaven. Nonetheless, the Tate Modern has ensured that we don’t completely miss out. A full video of the excellent Andy Warhol exhibition can be found online, along with a detailed commentary that explores the exhibition room by room.

14.  NOW Gallery’s “Slices Of Time” installation

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by emmanuelle moureaux (@emmanuellemoureaux) on Feb 3, 2020 at 2:50pm PST

Before the forced closures, NOW Gallery housed Emmanuele Moureaux’s first large-scale installation in the UK. Luckily though, the free exhibition, dubbed “Slices Of Time”, can still be found online. It’s the most brightly-coloured display on this list and is inspired by the artist’s time living in Tokyo among the neon lights. Slices Of Time takes on Moureaux’s invented concept of  shikiri,  which means ‘dividing space with colour’. The exhibition is a sight to behold and it’s available here for free .

See also:  The Netherlands’ Breathtaking Tulip Fields Are In Full Bloom, And You Can Explore Them Virtually

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9 virtual exhibition tours to watch online

By Connie Sjödin

Published on 16 April 2020

Galleries and museums might be closed but you can still see major exhibitions from around the world, while swapping the crowds for a cuppa. We pick some of the best virtual tours and artworks currently available online.

1. Andy Warhol at Tate Modern

London, curator tour In a seven-minute video tour , supplied along with text panels from the exhibition, Tate curators Gregor Muir and Fiontán Moran share their approach to the major Tate Modern exhibition of American pop artist, Andy Warhol . Key works from Warhol’s career tell of his experiences as the son of Eastern European immigrants, member of the LGBTQI community and his brush with death.

2. Raffaello, 1520 – 1483 at the Scuderie del Quirinale

Rome, virtual tour of the largest ever exhibition of Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, or Raphael, arrived in Rome in 1508, at the invitation of the new Pope Julius II. Although we can’t join him there, the Scuderie del Quirinale has brought its vast exhibition of one of the greatest artists of the High Renaissance online. In this 13-minute walk-through , learn about the social context and the crucial role of patronage in Raphael’s career, while gazing at his lavish range of portraits, religious works and architectural designs.

Photo © David Parry/Royal Academy of Arts © Succession Picasso/DACS 2020 Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London and the Cleveland Museum of Art in partnership with the Musée national Picasso-Paris

3. Picasso and Paper at the RA

London, virtual tour We could hardly leave out our own blockbuster, could we? In our 39-minute video tour of the exhibition, Picasso and Paper , you can experience the Spanish artist’s varied, experimental uses of paper over his 80-year career: drawing on, folding, even burning it. As the exhibition features more than 300 works, touring it meditatively from the comfort of your sofa could be an advantage.

And, while you're there – if you like it, you can take a quick spin around our Léon Spilliaert show too, in this 20-minute film .

4. Tom Wudl: The Flowerbank World at L.A Louver

Los Angeles, virtual tour Here is a suitably meditative approach to the work of American artist Tom Wudl. Doing away with added commentary, the six-minute walk-through gives space to Wudl’s intricately detailed paintings, drawings and prints, inspired by the Buddhist text the Avatamsaka Sutra . Visit the LA Louver website for more information on the exhibition and an interview with the artist.

5. Edward Hopper at Fondation Beyeler

Basel, curator introduction Many online commentators have held up 20th-century American artist Edward Hopper as the poster boy for self-isolation. Curator Ulf Küster provides a tantalising insight into the current exhibition at Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland, in a four-minute video tour released shortly before its closure. Hopper’s use of framing, windows, and evocation of an unknown landscape beyond the horizon, are all increasingly familiar in a changing world.

6. Jakob Kudsk Steensen: Catharsis from the Serpentine

London, virtual artwork until 31 May Shinrin-yoku , or “forest bathing”, is an ancient Japanese practice to relax and replenish the soul. While long nature excursions are currently off-limits, Serpentine Online is hosting an online equivalent until the end of May: Danish artist Jakob Kudsk Steensen’s digital simulation of a lush North American forest . The moss, the sunlight, the fish-populated pools and the calming music, provided by sound artist Matt McCorkle, all create an immensely tranquil experience.

7. Eye to I: Self Portraits from the National Portrait Gallery, at the Boca Raton Museum of Art

Boca Raton, virtual tour With the term “self-conscious" as its starting point, the exhibition Eye to I is a cherry-picking of self-portraits by major artists in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery . With a wide range of depictions spanning over a century, this thoughtful presentation straddles themes from cultural identity to body positivity. Catch up with it in this six-minute video tour .

8. Tanoa Sasraku: O’ Pierrot from LUX

London, moving image artworks available until 1 May LUX – an agency promoting international artists working with moving image – gifts us two short films by London-based artist Tanoa Sasraku in an online version of her planned exhibition. Set against the backdrop of the English countryside, Sasraku references early cinema and cultural tropes in order to examine the construction of a British identity, from her perspective as a young, mixed-race, LGBTQI woman.

9. Fiona Tan: Time Without Clocks from Frith Street Gallery

London, A Moving Image Programme, until 20 April As part of its digital offering Frith Street Gallery presents a weekly online programme of moving image works, which are usually seen only in exhibitions. This week Amsterdam-based artist Fiona Tan shares three contemplative works that centre on memory and her sense of time. As Tan explains in her introduction, scale and presentation are usually central to the experience of her works, so we recommend a dark room and headphones.

Next week, the gallery will be showcasing Raqs Media Collective's Provisions for Everybody (2018).

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10 of the world’s best virtual museum and art gallery tours

The originals are out of reach for now, but you can still see world-class art – without the queues or ticket prices – with an online tour of these famous museums

A rt lovers can view thousands of paintings, sculptures, installations and new work online – many in minute detail – as well as explore the museums themselves. There are various platforms: from interactive, 360-degree videos and full “walk-around” tours with voiceover descriptions to slideshows with zoomable photos of the world’s greatest artworks. And many allow viewers to get closer to the art than they could do in real life.

So, take a break from the news, enter full-screen mode and start your art adventure in sunny California …

J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

With more than 6,000 years worth of creative treasures, the Getty is one of the best places for art on the west coast of the US. Go from neolithic clay figures to Van Gogh’s Irises and Renoir’s La Promenade – just two of many artworks that feature in the virtual tour . As with several of our selection, Google Arts and Culture offers a “ museum view ” tool to look inside gallery spaces, with clickable artworks presenting further information. The Getty’s sunny sculpture plaza and garden terrace are worth adding to your digital trip, via another viewing platform, Xplorit . getty.edu

Vatican Museums, Rome

Soaring vaulted ceilings, intricate murals and tapestries, the Vatican’s museums are creatively rich sites. Don’t forget to look up when exploring the seven spaces in the museum’s virtual tour, to gawp at a series of 360-degree images, including the Sistine Chapel. Wander around the rest of Vatican City with a You Visit tour that takes in Saint Peter’s Basilica and Square, complete with a tour guide narrating each interactive space. museivaticani.va

Guggenheim, Bilbao

Frank Gehry’s sculptured titanium and steel building, on the banks of the Nervión River, is one of the world’s most distinctive art spaces. The interactive tour takes viewers around its collection of postwar American and European painting and sculpture – Rothko, Holzer, Koons, Kapoor – and even down between the weathered curves of Serra’s Matter of Time (turn left at the entrance). guggenheim-bilbao.eus

Natural History Museum, London

From the diplodocus to the dodo, botany to butterflies, giant crystals to specimens in jars … the Natural History Museum’s vast collection has long been a favourite of both Londoners and tourists. Get lost in the corridors and gallery spaces – one treat is Dippy the dino, who despite recently going on tour still makes an appearance in the entrance hall in this interactive online guide . nhm.ac.uk

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

This grand museum has a vast collection of art and historical objects across 80 galleries. A 10-year renovation project was completed in 2013, transforming the space and combining elements of 19th-century grandeur with modern lighting and a new glass-roofed atrium. The interactive tour helps viewers get up close to every brush stroke by Vermeer, Rembrandt and other Dutch masters while exploring the Great Hall and beyond. rijksmuseum.nl

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, South Korea

There are several sites making up this museum: the main gallery in Gwacheon and branches in Deoksugung, Seoul and Cheongju. The virtual tours explore an inspiring mix of print, design, sculpture, photography, new media and other large-scale installations. From Joseph Beuys to Warhol and Nam June Paik, the collection includes an international lineup of established artists, contemporary Korean artworks and emerging names. mmca.go.kr

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

In the former Gare d’Orsay, a Paris railway station and hotel, the musée is home to Cézanne, Monet and other French masters. Under a 138m-long curved glass roof, sits the largest collection of impressionist and post-Impressionist works in the world. The virtual tour also includes an online exhibition charting the history of the building. And over on Tourist Tube there’s a 360-degree view of the magnificent exterior. m.musee-orsay.fr

British Museum, London

There are 3,212 panes of glass in the domed ceiling of the British Museum’s Great Court, and no two are the same – and the 360-degree view in this virtual tour lets viewers examine each and every one. Beyond this magnificent space, viewers can find the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies and other ancient wonders. The museum’s interactive infographic platform, History Connected , goes into further depth of various objects with curators, along a timeline. britishmuseum.org

MASP, São Paulo, Brazil

The Museu de Arte de São Paulo has one of the broadest historical collections available to view via its virtual gallery platform , spanning from the 14th to 20th centuries. Paintings appear suspended in the air around the open-plan space, on glass panels or “crystal easels” as the museum calls them. There’s also a temporary retrospective exhibition by Brazilian pop artist Teresinha Soares beside the building’s statement red staircase. The glass and red-beam structure, built in 1968, is worth a look from the outside too, via Google Street View . masp.org.br

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Guide To The Guildhall Art Gallery, London Hidden Gem

The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the City of London’s art collection. Opened in 1886, it’s located in the Square Mile, the historic and financial district of the city.

The Guildhall aims to be a gallery “about London for London.” The collection consists of 4,00 artworks (oil paintings, drawings, sculptures). It’s particularly rich in Victorian era art, including some dreamy Pre-Raphaelites paintings.

In 1987, the ruins of a Roman amphitheater were discovered onsite during a building project. They were excavated and opened to the public in 2002.

This guide tells you everything to see at the Guildhall Art Gallery and gives you tips for visiting. It’s a hidden gem in London that’s well worth visiting for art lovers and fans of Roman ruins. Plus, it’s perfectly free!

Guildhall Art Gallery: What To See

Here are the highlights and things you can’t miss on a visit to the Guildhall:

1. Dante Gabriel Rossetti,  La Ghirlandata

This painting is perhaps the museum’s most renowned piece. But, be forewarned, it’s often on loan, so you might miss it during your visit.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s La Ghirlandata translates to “The Garlanded Lady” or “The Lady of the Wreath.” The artist called it “the greenest picture in the world.”

The artwork is often seen as a representation of love and beauty. It portrays a red headed woman playing a harp while surrounded by angels, flowers, and lush greenery. Her green dress blends seamlessly into the landscape.

Painted in 1873, La Ghirlandata belongs to the later phase of Rossetti’s career, which is characterized by a strong aesthetic and sensual style.

2. Frederick Leighton, The Music Lesson

Frederic Leighton was a British artist and one of the leading figures of the Victorian Neo-classical art movement. He was known for his mastery of classical techniques and his ability to create highly detailed and visually stunning paintings.

One of his notable works is The Music Lesson , which is a rather exotic and highly romanticized painting. It depicts a young girl playing a a stringed instrument while an older girl sits beside her, listening intently.

The painting follows Leighton’s dictum that a painting should be “beauty of beauty’s sake.” It’s about the senses — sounds from the string instrument and touch from texture of the luxurious flowing costumes.

3. William Shakespeare Burton, The Wounded Cavalier

Burton was a genre painting and historical painter of the Victorian era. The Wounded Cavalier is his most famous painting.

In this visually arresting piece, Burton depicts a Royalist soldier, who has been wounded during the English Civil War in the mid-17th century.

The soldier is portrayed in a heroic and romanticized manner, symbolizing the loyalty and sacrifice of Royalist supporters.

Apart from the compelling narrative, the painting is simply visually arresting, with exquisite color and attention to detail.

4. James Tissot, Too Early

Tissot is a French painter of the Victorian era. He’s known for his portraits and genre scenes depicting fashionable Parisian society.

This Tissot painting is a detailed and perfect study of character and expression. It captures a witty moment in Victorian polite society.

The central group is particularly expressive. Look at the side eye of the woman in coral and white and the slight upward look of the elderly man.

Are they trying to escape from an embarrassing social situation, having arrived too early? Aside from the comedy in the painting, you can see Tissot’s painting virtuosity in the exquisite detail of the gowns.

5. Paul Delaroche, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey

You may recognize this painting. It’s a enormously popular image of the execution of Lady Jane Grey, the “nine days queen.”

The large scale original is in the National Gallery of Art . The Guildhall owns a smaller study.

Delaroche is known for his emotionally charged subject matter and theatricality. Here, he depicts the final moments of the would-be queen as she awaits her death.

6. John Singleton Copley, Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar

John Singleton Copley was an American painter of the 18th century known for his skillful and detailed portraits, historical paintings, and scenes of everyday life.

Defeat is a massive painting with a double height wall specifically designed for its display. In it, Copley depicts a key naval engagement during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, which took place from 1779 to 1783 during the American Revolutionary War.

Copley’s fully restored painting is celebrated for its meticulous attention to detail and its ability to convey the tension and action of the battle.

7. William Holman Hunt, Eve of St. Agnes

Hunt was a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. His paintings are know for their colorful hyperrealistic style.

This painting illustrates an episode from Keat’s poem of 1819, The Eve of St. Anges . It tells the tale of Madeleine’s escape with her lover Porphyry from her father’s house.

It’s strongly moralistic in detail. Two men are passed out while revellers party in the background. Porphyry’s hand on the sword suggests danger.

8. William Logsdail, The Ninth of November

William Logsdail was a British artist known for his urban landscapes, particularly his scenes of London.

He gained recognition for his detailed and realistic depictions of everyday life in the city, capturing the atmosphere, architecture, and people of late 19th and early 20th century London.

In this painting, the backdrop is a cold, wet, and gloomy November day in London on the Lord Mayor’s Day. The weather hasn’t put off the spectators.

In contrast to the drab weather, you see a gleaming stagecoach and splendidly dressed footmen.

9. Carl Laubin, 12.18 and 10 Seconds

Carl Laubin is a contemporary British artist known for his architectural paintings.

He was formerly an architect, and hist paintings reflect that. They are meticulously detailed and highly realistic representations of classical and neoclassical buildings and landscapes.

This painting depicts another Lord Mayor’s Show in 2009. The title refers to the military precision timing of the parade.

As in Logsdail’s painting above from a century earlier, the drab weather is offset by the glittering gold coach and colorful umbrellas.

10. John Everett Millais, My Second Sermon

The Guildhall has four beautiful paintings by Pre-Raphaelite artist John Everett Millais.

My Second Sermon is one of two paintings the artist created of a child listening to sermons.

In the fist one, she is sitting upright and listening. In this one, not as popular with the clergy, the child’s enthusiasm has waned and she’s napping. It serves as a warning to preacher’s to keep their sermons short.

I also loved Millais’ Lorenzo and Isabella painting in the museum. It’s based on a Keats’ poem and depicts the moment her brothers discover she has a secret love.

11. Roman Amphitheater

It was long suspected that ancient Londinium would have had an amphitheater. But the ruins were only discovered in 1988, while excavating to build the new Guildhall gallery.

The Romand built the amphitheater in about 70 A.D. It was elliptical shape, approximately 330 feet by 230 feet.

It was later expanded to seat 6,000 spectators, who came to see the gladiatorial games. At the time, Londinium was only about 20,000 people, so this was popular stuff.

Today the ruins are buried about 26 feet below ground in the museum’s basement. You can see remains of the original walls, the drainage system, and even sand used to soak up blood from wounded gladiators.

A digital projection fills in gaps of the ruins.

Practical Guide & Tips For The Guildhall Art Gallery

Address : Basinghall St, London EC2V 5AE, UK

Hours : Open daily 10:30 am to 4:00 pm

Ticket : Free. You can scan a QR code to get the free audio guide.

Tours : There are free introductory tours at 12:15 pm and 1:15 pm on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They last about 45 minutes and you don’t need to book in advance.

How Long To Spend?

The Guildhall is a small museum. I would plan to spend about an hour to see the highlights, longer if you are an art lover.

Is the Guildhall Art Gallery Worth It?

I think the Guildhall Art Gallery is worth visiting, especially if you’re a repeat visitor to London looking for some hidden gems. It advertises itself as the “city’s best kept secret.”

It’s also a must do if you love the Pre-Raphaelites or want to see some rare Roman ruins in London.

Plus, it’s hard to beat free.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my guide to the Guildhall Art Gallery. You may enjoy these other London travel guides and resources:

• 3 Day Itinerary for London
• 5 Day Itinerary for London
• Hidden Gems in London
• Tourist Traps To Avoid in London
• Free Museums in London
• Harry Potter Places in London
• Guide to the Tower of London
• Guide to the Churchill War Rooms
• Guide To the National Gallery of Art

If you’d like to visit the Guildhall Art Gallery, pin it for later.

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Last Updated on November 17, 2023 by Leslie Livingston

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Our immersive Victorian Walk experience recreates the winding streets of 19th-century London. We've captured it in 3D for you to explore!

• Click/touch the white circles on the ground to move
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Do a little window shopping at the toyshop, tobacconist, tailor or pawnbroker and get a taste of life in Victorian London.

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1. Find the toy shop

Hint : Start and go forward five times. The sign above says 'TOYSHOP'.

Zoom in to have a good look at what's on display.

If you could buy one thing from the toy shop, what would it be?

What are some of the differences between Victorian toys and toys today?

In Victorian times, children from poorer families would save their money to buy ‘penny toys’.

2. Find the barrel organ

Hint : From the toy shop, turn left, go forward three times, turn left again, go forward once, look to your right.

Children who could not afford toys would make their own entertainment in the streets. They might listen and dance to the music of a barrel organ, which played a melody when someone cranked the handle on the side.

Do you know any other places where Victorian people could listen to music?

What ways can you listen to music today?

3. Find the tea and coffee warehouse

Hint : From the barrel organ, go forwards towards the post box, turn right, go forward. Look up and you should see the sign.

What do you think the large ‘wheel’ outside was used for?

Why do you think tea, coffee and sugar were very expensive in Victorian times?

4. Find a Victorian bicycle

Hint : With the tea and coffee warehouse on your right, go forward twice. It's on your right.

Do you know the proper name for this type of bicycle?

Here's a clue: P _ _ _ Y - F_ _ _ _ _ _ G

How is it different to a modern bicycle?

How do you think people might have got onto it?

The bicycle (or ‘velocipede’) was invented in the Victorian period and became very popular.

5. Find the grocer’s shop

Hint : From the bicycle, turn left and go through the archway, then go forward. It's on your right.

This is where people in Victorian times would buy tinned and dry foodstuffs – the sort of things we would buy from a supermarket or a convenience store today.

• What food can you see on sale?
• Try zooming in to read the labels. What brands can you see?
• Do you recognise any types or makes of food that we still use today?
• If you were shopping in this grocer’s, would you be able to get to what you wanted?
• How is a modern supermarket different?

Tinned food was introduced in the early 19th century and was very expensive at first.

6. Find the fancy stationer’s shop

Hint : With the grocer's shop on your right, go forward. It's right in front of you.

This sort of shop sold things like writing paper, greetings cards and envelopes.

Christmas cards were very popular with Victorian Londoners.

How many pictures of Father Christmas can you spot?

How is he different to pictures of Father Christmas you might see today?

Many winter traditions such as Christmas trees, crackers, giving presents and Father Christmas were introduced in Victorian times.

What else can you find?

You've made it to the end. Well done!

There's plenty more to see if you keep your eyes peeled!

What to do next

Why not try this creative Victorian activity?

Decorate your own penny plains

The Victorians loved decorating 'penny plains' – souvenir images of famous actors or heroes. Try it yourself using felt tips and colouring pencils – or embellish your pictures with sequins and glitter!

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The Best of Art Paris 2024 Is Still Virtually On View

More than 130 galleries from around the world came together to celebrate the oft-overlooked arts & crafts movement..

This year’s Art Paris was held once again in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte’s temporary Grand Palais Éphémère, which has been the backdrop of major cultural events during the temporary closure for renovation of the go-to Grand Palais. It’s a banner year for the City of Lights, which is under the spotlight of the cultural scene, with major artistic events shaping up around both the coming Paris Olympic Games and the 150th Anniversary of Impressionism. In that spirit, Art Paris 2024 focused on opening the doors of an often “closed circle” to the wider public.

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With 136 galleries from 25 different countries, this April art fair showcased a selection of modern and contemporary art from established and rising artists repped by new galleries such as Richard Saltoun Gallery from London and Berlin’s Esther Schipper, which joined well-known habitués Poggi and Perrotin, among others. Visitors were not left to wander and wonder. In a bid to counter the perceived exclusivity of the art world, Art Paris mounted over 100 guided tours over the fair’s four days and, perhaps more importantly, invited those unable to make it to Paris to virtually walk through the fair .

While lacking the sensorial elements that made living the fair in person so remarkable, the virtual tour is a great way to get familiar with these artists or experience Art Paris from afar.

A fair of irresistible texture

With “Art & Craft” being one of the two themes of this year’s edition, most galleries selected artworks that celebrated a fusion of materials and played with layers ‘leaping’ out of the canvas. A feast of techniques from the craft world intertwined with more classical artistic styles including threads intricately sewn through canvas, glitter layered on oil, photographs printed on thinly shredded silk, wool boxed under glass panels and three-dimensional tapestries.

A selection by art critic and independent curator Nicolas Trembley was at the center stage of this thematic exploration presenting works that celebrated a movement that emerged in the United Kingdom at the end of the 19th Century and has been recently having its renaissance through international exhibitions and publications, such as the acclaimed “Unravel – The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art” exhibition at the Barbican in London and the book Women’s Work: From Feminine Art to Feminist Art by art historian Ferren Gipson .

Notably, several of the selected pieces were from artists who brought their experience with different craft techniques to the fine arts, including textile artist Sheila Hicks (Claude Bernard Gallery), painter and tapestry artist Barbara Levittoux-Świderska (Richard Saltoun Gallery), Japanese ceramic artist Shiro Tsujimura (Les sentiment des choses Gallery) and fashion designer Jeanne Viceral (Templon gallery), with her powerful garment sculptures.

Standing out, Tierras del Sur a multi-material three-dimensional tapestry by Catalan artist Josep Grau-Garriga (Claude Bernard Gallery) paid homage to his background in Catalan wall art while breaking away from tradition by mixing textures and materials including wool, jute, silk and cotton creating lumps in the wall as if hiding a mystery underneath. There was also Ge Ba , a series of “fabric paintings” presented by the Françoise Livinec Gallery and displayed as rows of framed patchworks made of fabric fragments held together with rice glue, which celebrate the unknown Chinese textile workers who created them in 1950.

SEE ALSO: How Tony Notarberardino’s ‘Chelsea Hotel Portraits’ Captured the End of an Era

Visitors could be seen leaning in toward the front and side of artworks to get a closer view of 3D effects, with hesitant hands hovering longing to feel those textures. In some gallery booths, artists extended their art beyond the frames to the walls, such as Keita Mori ’s threads swirling across Putman Gallery’s booth. Hanging abstract copper swirls by Belgian artist Fred Eerdekens contained hidden messages that were only revealed as a subtle play of lights and shadows on the walls of the Opera Gallery booth. These installations transformed visitors’ experience making them active participants rather than passive observers.

Imagining ‘Fragile Utopias’

Less enthralling than the “Art & Craft”’ selections, “Fragile Utopias” paid homage to artists from the French scene who portray a utopian vision of possible ways to improve the world. Without imposing them as imperative ideals, these representations are doubtful possibilities, which, according to curator Éric de Chassey, are the only possible utopias in today’s world. De Chassey, director of the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA), chose these based on his reaction to the works, selecting artists active all across France including several who have left their homelands to make France a new home, possibly finding in it some of their utopian ideals.

Renowned artists from the modernist period, such as Sonia Terk-Delaunay with her Rocks in Monteaux at Bérès Gallery and the soothing Women and Birds in a Park by cubist and dadaist painter Juliette Roche (Pauline Pavec Gallery) merge with the work of emerging contemporary artists. Iranian artist Elika Hedayat ’s oils on canvas (Aline Vidal Gallery) illustrate attempts to escape a dystopian controlling power by creating local utopias. Her paintings often include women with long black hair sprawling, a symbol of Iranian women’s fight for freedom. Yto Barrada ’s vivid photographic series Flea Market s (Polaris Gallery), depicts building waste and abandoned furniture from the streets of Tangier while Daniel Schlier ’s vision of Spring (Galerie East) questions how to create harmony between nature and industrial development through the use of the Alsatian technique of reverse glass painting (on plexiglass in this case).

Then there were the solo shows

The fair included eighteen solo shows among the gallery booths, with homages to historic artists such as Jean Hélion (Patrice Trigano Gallery) and contemporary discoveries such as Columbian artist Leyla Cárdenas (Dix9-Hélène Lacharmoise Gallery), whose photographs of urban buildings on shredded silk polyester catapulted the viewer inside the scene.

Franco-Algerian artist Katia Kameli (110 Galerie Véronique Rieffel) and French artist and photographer Sophie Zénon (Galerie XII) stole the “solo” show with their homages to the natural and animal world, which seemed to be one of the unplanned and unsung protagonists of the fair overall, with large landscapes, pressed flowers framed in an array of materials, a flower carpet, and upside-down orchid pots dotting the exhibitions. Kameli’s ethereal ink on silk backdrop Stream of Stories came together with her musical series of ceramic sculptures The Canticle of Birds creating a peaceful oasis in the bustle of the event. Zénon’s installation applied different techniques, including photography, printing on tulle, sculpting and collage, creating a sort of diary of a naturalist observing obsidional plants—those plants that have been migrated or grown, voluntarily or not, in the wave armies traveling during wars.

Art Paris’ unmissable galleries

Without a doubt, Art Paris was a fair to stir visitors’ senses and imagination, bringing attention to emerging artists and galleries from across the world. Some galleries that particularly stood out for their selections included Opera Gallery (Paris) and Clavé Fine Art (Paris) for their mesmerizing choice of international artists who played with forms, layers and dimensions, La Forest Divonne (Paris and Bruxelles) for the bold and colorful nature-themed canvases and Jeanne Bucher Jaeger (Paris and Lisbon) for pieces paying homage to cultures across the world. Helen Bailly (Paris) created an exquisite setting composed of an art-deco-inspired tree-shaped lamp and natural elements embracing canvas by renowned artists such as Picasso. 313 Art Project (Seoul and Paris) surprised with hilarious work by South Korean artist Woo Kukwon, as did Double V (Marseille and Paris) with its entire selection of artists, particularly French artist Elise Boundelle and Brazilian Manoela Medeiros .

• SEE ALSO : Leonora Carrington’s Surrealist Masterpiece Expected to Sell for a Record $18M

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