We’re all looking for for great things to do in London, but in these times of banking bumbling finding a great deal is more important than ever. The word FREE ENTRY is ideally what we are all out there looking for. Well we’ve set ourselves a challenge to try and find the best things that you can do on a visit to London on a fraction of the normal city break budget. Today I revisited an old favourite – the National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
Hidden away to the left of the big brotherish National Gallery, this gem of a gallery is one of the most serene places in London. While the Tate Modern attracts most of the plaudits (and let’s face it visitors), the NPG quiets does what it does best – being the most accessible and fun art gallery in London.
Now this isn’t the way that you imagine to an art gallery to be. it doesn’t solely exist for people artists and art people. Also, it isn’t solely full of images of far away places and fêted muses of rich artisans. This is an art galley for the people as crucially it is full of images of people you know and have heard of. They’ve reorganised the lower galleries recently and this has made it even easier to get involved as soon as you pass the revolving doors.
The first gallery is dedicated to the 20th century and manages to swiftly combine celebrity portraits of Gwyneth Paltrow (by Michael Thompson) and Michael Sheen (by Zac Mead) with surreal pictures of Sir Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela. These aren’t though, throw away magazine style images. These are portrait photographs taken by some of the best photographers on the planet. And the scale is amazing. Photos that dominate entire walls, far larger than a 50” plasma screen and far more impressive. Pay particular attention to Miles Aldridge’s picture of Lilly Cole (think of a Victorian miniature) and to Allen Jones’s stunning image of prima ballerina Darcey Bussell (we loved the amazing Disney style colouring, a little like a fully grown Hannah Montana).
As you wander the galleries and see the enormous breadth of the collection, the time simply passes effortlessly. You’ll be able to finally put faces to names that you remember from school or your grandparents stories, while at the same time seeing your own heroes idolised on the walls for posterity. It really helps to plan a visit here either before or after you take in any of London’s numerous historical tours and monuments. It’s like your own interactive walking encyclopaedia, a large scale Madame Tussauds with images rather than waxworks.
Here are a few things that you really need to keep your eye out for on a visit to the NPG.
- The champions exhibition – a series of amazing black and white nude portraits of some of the world’s biggest sports stars (in support of the Elton John Aids foundation)
- Keep your eye for the aristocrat murdered at the Tower of London whose body was exhumed, head stitched back on and portrait painted (as they needed one for the families wall)
- In the underground gallery there is an exhibition of some of the most famous photos from the pages of Vanity Fair
- There is a fabulous little cafe and book shop in the basement
- The are free tours and talks each day (on different subjects each time) – times vary but they tend to be in the afternoon
- JK Rowling is immortalised in a 3d painting by Stuart Pearson Wright. The cafe setting echos the writing of Harry Potter, whereas her dinner of eggs represent the children she had and connected with while finishing the novels.
oh and if we need to underline it’s unpretentiousness any further, you can even take home most of your fav images of the likes of Becks and Madonna for only 60p
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Sean Collins
Sean moved back to the UK after living all over the world for years. He basically writes about shows, booze filled antics, about avoiding tourists and not paying top whack to get in anywhere. He still misses Mark and Lard being on Radio 1 and is possibly the clumsiest person in the Northern Hemisphere. Also he is stupidly scared of dogs and thinks that everyone needs at least 7 cups of coffee a day to keep their heart running (all with biscuits to dunk of course).
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