St Martin's Place, London WC2
Tel: 020 7306 0055
The National Portrait Gallery, which opened to the public in 1856, houses the portraits of famous men and women in British history and culture: poets and princesses, pop stars and performers, artists and statesmen are on display in 10,000 oil paintings, watercolours, drawings, miniatures, sculptures, caricatures, silhouettes and photographs, selected on the basis of the significance of the sitter
There are self-portraits by William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds and other British artists of note.
Here you can find portraits of the first Queen Elizabeth along with her namesake, Elizabeth II, who is represented in 50 portraits. Here also, William Shakespeare - 1564-1616 - Dramatist and poet by (attributed to) John Taylor - circa 1610 and the valuable, ink and watercolour of Henry VIII by Hans Holbein (circa 1536-1537).
The Gallery moved to its present building, which is adjacent to the National Gallery in 1896. An escalator takes visitors to the earliest part of the collection - the Plantagenet and Tudor portraits.
In addition to its permanent galleries of historical portraits, the National Portrait Gallery exhibits a rapidly changing collection of contemporary work, with a programme of special exhibitions, acquisitions and commissions.
In the basement the Portrait Cafe serves tea, coffee and light snacks while the third floor Portrait Restaurant has spectacular views of Trafalgar Square and Whitehall.
Evening Openings
The Gallery has late openings on Thursday and Friday evenings until 9pm. Visitors are able to view the Main Collection and exhibitions - special lectures are also held on Thursday evenings and free music events on Friday evenings.
Admission: Free
Nearest London Underground station/s, (Tube/s): Charing Cross or Leicester Square.
Website:-www.npg.org.uk
