London Arts & Crafts

Bankside Gallery

Home of the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. The Gallery runs a changing programme of exhibitions of contemporary watercolours and original prints, which feature work by Members of both Societies. Members’ work embraces both traditional and experimental practices and the exhibitions reflect these different approaches.

48 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JH  Tel: 020 7928 7521  Email

The Barbican Centre

Europe’s largest multi-arts and conference venue. The Barbican presents a year-round programme of art, music, film and theatre.

Silk Street  EC2Y 8DS  Tel: 020 7638 4141   Email

British Library

The national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest libraries. The collection includes 150 million items, in most known languages with 3 million new items being incorporated every year. The library houses manuscripts, maps, newspapers, magazines, prints and drawings, music scores, and patents and operates the world's largest document delivery service providing millions of items a year to customers all over the world.

96 Euston Road, NW1 2DB  Tel: 0870 444 1500   Email

Courtauld Institute & Gallery

The Courtauld Institute Gallery has one of the most important collections in Britain, including world-famous Old Master and Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, together with sculpture and applied arts. It is a spectacular art collection located in Somerset House – a magnificent Thames side building.

Somerset House  Strand  WC2R 0RN  Tel: 020 7848 2777  Email

Crafts Council Gallery

Britain’s largest crafts gallery, hosts a continuous programme of major craft exhibitions, some of which tour nationally and internationally

44a Pentonville Road, London N1 9BY  Tel: 020 7278 7700

Dulwich Picture Gallery

Opened in 1814, the Dulwich Picture Gallery is one of the oldest public gallery in Britain. The collection was created in the 17th century by Edward Alleyn, founder of the school, and contains works by Possin, Claude, Rubens, Murillo, Rembrandt, Watteau and Gainsborough.

College Road, Dulwich, SE21 7AD  Tel: 020 8693 5254

Frith Street Gallery

Founded in 1989 with the intention of showing the best work on paper by both British and international contemporary artists. In 1994, the gallery expanded, and it now shows installation work, film and sculpture alongside drawings, paintings and photography.

59 – 60 Frith Street W1D 3JJ   Tel: 020 7 494 1550  Email

The Globe

Founded by the pioneering American actor/director Sam Wanamaker, Shakespeare’s Globe is a unique international resource dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare’s work, and the playhouse for which he wrote, through the connected means of education and performance

21 New Globe Walk  Bankside  SE1 9DT  Tel: 020 7902 1400  Email

Guildhall Gallery

The Guildhall is the main administrative building for the City of London, known as the Corporation of London. The Corporation began collecting works of art in the 17th century and has a collection of around 4,000, mainly Victorian, paintings.  However, only about 250 can be exhibited at any one time and part of the gallery is given over to a rolling exhibition so that more obscure works can be seen.

Guildhall Yard, off Gresham Street, EC2P 2EJ    Tel: 020 7332 1313.  Email

Hayward Gallery

Part of the South Bank Centre, the Hayward Gallery, one of the largest, purpose-built galleries in Britain. The gallery has no permanent exhibition but hosts temporary shows of contemporary and historical art, often the work of British contemporary artists.  Every five years the gallery selects and organises The British Art Show.

Belvedere Road SE1 8XZ   Tel: 020 7921 0813   Email

Institute of Contemporary Art

Established in 1947 to encourage new developments in the arts. It houses a cinema, auditorium, art gallery, bookshop, bar and restaurant.

The Mall,  SW1Y 5AH   Tel: 020 7766 1406 Email

National Film Theatre

One of the world’s greatest cinemas and hosts a wide range of film and cinema screenings and talks throughout the year. In November it is home to the internationally renowned London Film Festival

Belvedere Road, South Bank  SE1 8XT  Tel: 020 7928 3232

National Gallery

Houses one of the greatest collections of European painting in the world. These pictures belong to the public and entrance to see them is free. The collection contains some 2,300 Western European paintings, mostly dating from 1260 - 1900, including many masterpieces by the greatest artists

Trafalgar Square,  WC2N 5DN  Tel: 020 7747 2885   Email

National Portrait Gallery

Founded in 1856, the primary collection now consists of 10,000 portraits, and over 250,000 archived images, of everyone from statesmen to showbiz stars and media barons. The collection represents Britain from the late fourteenth-century to the present day and is arranged thematically to include the Tudors, politicians and pop stars, Victorian statesmen and the Civil War.

St Martin’s Place  WC2H 0HE  Tel: 020 7306 0055

National Theatre

Designed by Denys Lasdun and opened by the Queen in 1976. It has three theatres, The Olivier which is the biggest of the three, with a capacity of 1,160, The Lyttelton with a capacity of 890, and the small Cottesloe with a capacity of 400. All shows are usually in repertoire, which means you can see many productions in a week. The National show a varied amont of productions, musicals, classics and new plays.

Southbank  SE1 9PX  Tel: 020 7452 3400   Email

Pitzhanger Manor House  

A restored Georgian villa once owned and designed by John Sloan, architect and surveyor to the Bank of England. Today, the whole site is being developed as a major cultural venue incorporating the historic house and PM Gallery, now the largest public art gallery space in West London exhibiting contemporary professional art .

Walpole Park, Mattock Lane, Ealing, W5 5EQ   Tel: 020 8567 1227  Email

The Queen’s Gallery

The Royal Family have amassed one of the world’s greatest collections of art. Mixing the famous with the unexpected, the gallery exhibits a selection of 450 outstanding works for Royal Treasures including paintings, drawings and watercolours, furniture, sculpture and ceramics, silver and gold, arms and armour, jewellery and miniatures, books and manuscripts

Buckingham Palace, Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1A 1AA Tel: 020 7321 2233  Email

Royal Academy of Arts

Founded in 1768, the Academy is best known for its summer exhibition, held for the past 200 years. The gallery shows prestigious touring exhibitions from around the world

Burlington House, Piccadilly  W1J 0BD  Tel: 020 7300 8000  Email

Royal Court Theatre

Born in the late 1950s, the Royal Court Theatre is now regarded worldwide as the premier theatrical breeding ground for new writers and home of the English Stage Company. After a £25 million refurbishment, the Royal Court is London’s major venue for experimental or counter-cultural works.

Sloan Square  SW1W 8AS  Tel: 020 7565 5000  Email

Royal Festival Hall

The Royal Festival Hall forms part of the South Bank Centre along with Purcell Room & Queen Elizabeth Hall.  This arts complex has a Thameside location, with superb views along and across the river, especially at night. The Hall stages mainly concerts and popular musical events, and the greatest figures of the music world have performed here including the cellist Jacqueline du Pré and the conductor George Solti, 

Belvedere Road, South Bank  SE1 8XX  Tel: 020 7921 0682

Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is the third theatre on the Covent Garden site. Now the permanent home of The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet.  In 1999 the Royal Opera House reopened after a £214 million redevelopment and expansion programme

Covent Garden WC2E 9DD   Tel: 7240 1200  Email

Serpentine Gallery

In 1998 the gallery re-opened after undergoing redevelopment and renovation  The gallery now provides a flexible, state-of-the-art environment for international art, as well as an education. Since the early 1990s the gallery has become one of London’s leading venues for important shows of recent work by established British artists, among them Rachel Whiteread and Damien Hirst. area.  

Kensington Gardens, South Kensington, W2 3XA  Tel: 020 7402 6075  Email

Dennis Severs House

A restored red-brick Georgian terraced house, built in 1724, was owned by American-born Dennis Severs, who died in 1999. This eccentric designer and performer has recreated a historical interior that takes the visitor on a journey from 1685-1919.  The rooms are set out as a series of ’tableaux vivants’.  Visitors get the impression that the occupants have just slipped out for a moment: candles flicker, the table has the remains of a meal and the sound of horses’ hooves outside.

18 Folgate Street  Spitalfields  E1 6BX  Tel: 7247 4013  Email

Tate Britain

Tate Britain houses the national collection of British art from the 16th century to the present day, including the Turner Bequest. It holds the greatest collection of British art in the world, including works by Blake, Constable, Epstein, Gainsborough, Gilbert and George, Hatoum, Hirst, Hockney, Hodgkin, Hogarth, Moore, Rossetti, Sickert, Spencer, Stubbs and Turner.

Millbank  SW1 4RG  Tel: 020 7887 8000

Tate Modern

Recently refurbished old power station now converted into a stunning gallery for the display of modern and contemporary art, including major works by Bacon, Dalí, Picasso, Matisse, Rothko and Warhol as well as contemporary work by artists such as Rebecca Horn, Steve McQueen and Gillian Wearing.

Bankside SE1 9TG  Tel: 020 7887 8000

Wallace Collection

The Wallace Collection is one of the finest private collections of art in the world.  The range of fine and decorative arts from the 16th - 19th centuries was largely accumulated between 1802 - 75 by three generations of the Hertford family, and Sir Richard Wallace.Best known for its 18th century French paintings, furniture and paintings.  The closed collection is one of the finest assemblies of French art outside Paris

Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN  Tel: 020 7935 0687  Email

The Wernher Collection at Ranger’s House

An elegant red brick villa on the edge of Greenwich Park. This houses items from the Wernher collection of nearly 700 works of art plus displays about the collector. Along with Sevres porcelain, the largest private collection of Renaissance jewellery in the UK, limoges, enamels.
 
Blackheath, Greenwich, SE10 8QX  Tel:   Tel: 020 8853 0035

Whitechapel  Art Gallery

One of England’s leading centres for contemporary art, providing a vital focus for artistic activity in the East End. In 1977 the annual exhibition of local artists work was re-launched as the ’Whitechapel Open’ and in 1988 a programme of open studios was added. By 1994 over 800 artists were involved.

80-82 Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX  Tel: 020 7522 7888  Email