National Portrait Gallery London, Architect, Image, Date, NPG Extension, Design, Photo

National Portrait Gallery London

NPG: Key Public Building off Trafalgar Square, England, UK – by various architects

page updated 23 Jun 2014

National Portrait Gallery Building

Date: 1896

Design: Ewan Christian

image © Nick Weall

Address: St Martin’s Pl, London WC2H 0HE, England, UK

Phone: 020 7306 0055

Hours: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm, check with building operator

National Portrait Gallery Extension: Orange Street wing
Date built: 1933
Design: Sir Richard Allison, architect

National Portrait Gallery redevelopment: Ondaatje Wing
Date built: 2000
Design: Dixon.Jones Architects

photo © Adrian Welch

National Portrait Gallery redevelopment designers : Dixon.Jones Architects

The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was the first portrait gallery in the world when it opened in 1856. The gallery moved in 1896 to its current site at St Martin’s Place, off Trafalgar Square, and adjoining the National Gallery. It has been expanded twice since then. The NPG also has three regional outposts at Beningbrough Hall, Bodelwyddan Castle and Montacute House. It is unconnected to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh, with which its remit overlaps. The gallery is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Following calls for a new location to be found – away from the Bethnal Green Museum – the government accepted an offer of funds from the philanthropist William Henry Alexander. Alexander also chose the architect, Ewan Christian. The government provided the new site, St Martin’s Place, adjacent to the National Gallery, and £16,000. The buildings, faced in Portland stone, were constructed by Shillitoe & Son. Both the architect, Ewan Christian, and the gallery’s first director, George Scharf, died shortly before the new building was completed. The gallery opened at its new location on 4 April 1896. The site has since been expanded twice. The first extension, in 1933, was funded by Lord Duveen, and resulted in the wing by architect Sir Richard Allison that runs along Orange Street.
Source: wikipedia

Location: NPG, central London, England, UK