Your guide to London's culture and transport news and events taking place across the city.
Your guide to London's culture and transport news and events taking place across the city.
National Portrait Gallery
About National Portrait Gallery
The gallery houses portraits of historically important and famous British people, selected on the basis of the significance of the sitter, not that of the artist.
The collection includes photographs and caricatures as well as paintings, drawings and sculptures.
One of its best-known images is the Chandos portrait, the most famous portrait of William Shakespeare.
Address
National Portrait Gallery,
St Martin's Place,
London,
WC2H 0HE
Ticket prices
The main gallery is free to visit, although they may charge for the temporary exhibitions.
The gallery is open daily from 10:30am to 6pm, and late to 9pm on Friday & Saturday.
Opening hours last checked June 2023
Accessibility
All the entrances have step-free access and all levels of the Gallery are connected by lifts. The Gallery has accessible toilets, a Changing Places Toilet, and the cafés, restaurant and shops have step-free access.
Staff and volunteers are fully trained to support people who require assistance.
There are induction loops at the Information Desk, Cloakroom Desk, Ondaatje Wing Theatre, shops, cafés, restaurant, Learning Studios, Orange Street reception, and the Heinz Archive and Library.
A limited number of manual wheelchairs are available to borrow free of charge from the Information Desk.
Guide, hearing and assistance dogs are welcome at the Gallery. A water bowl is available at the Information Desk.
This Prize is one of the most important and anticipated photography competitions in the world and a showcase for both celebrated professionals and talented amateurs.
The National Portrait Gallery has announced the return of its annual painting competition, the Portrait Award, with support from new headline sponsor, Herbert Smith Freehills.
An exhibition of one artist’s lifetime of work opens appropriately with two self-portraits of him as a young man and a recent one as a rather older man.
An exhibition of recent portraits by David Hockney will be going on display later this year at the recently reopened National Portrait Gallery, including the headline portrait of Harry Styles.
For the past three years, the National Portrait Gallery has been a building site, but now it’s reopened, with a large new reception entrance, a dramatic escalator to the top floor, and loads more space.
To mark the reopening of the National Portrait Gallery, and their inaugural exhibition of Paul McCartney photographs, there will be an in-conversation between Paul McCartney and Stanley Tucci.
After three years of closure for rebuilding works, the National Portrait Gallery has confirmed that it will reopen its doors on 22 June 2023, following the most significant redevelopment in its history.
