Guildhall Art Gallery & Roman London´s Amphitheatre

Many famous and much-loved pictures are once again on view for the public to see and enjoy in the new Guildhall Art Gallery which opened in 1999. The original gallery was burned down during a severe air raid in May 1941.

The new gallery displays about 250 works of art at a time, with a programme of temporary exhibitions exploring different themes and allowing many lesser-known pictures from the collection to come out of store.

In 1988, Museum of London archaeologists made a discovery that was to change the face of Roman London forever - when they unearthed the capital's only Roman amphitheatre in Guildhall Yard. Nearly 15 years later, the doors to the amphitheatre opened for the first time in nearly 2,000 years.

The collection:
The City of London began collecting works of art in the seventeenth century, when it commissioned portraits of the judges appointed to assess property claims in the wake of the Great Fire of London of 1666. Its collection now comprises 4,000 works of art ranging from portraits of kings and queens to depictions of important naval battles, from period views of historic London to the work of contemporary artists. Since the Second World War, the City of London’s collection has concentrated on London subjects.

Perhaps the most popular works in the Guildhall collection are its Victorian pictures, including well-known favourites like Millais’ My First Sermon and My Second Sermon and Landseer’s The First Leap , as well as a large landscape by John Constable, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows . The Guildhall Art Gallery also houses the famous painting The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar by John Singleton Copley.


VISITORS INFORMATION:


Opening hours:

Monday - Saturday: 10.00am - 5.00pm
Sunday: 12.00noon - 4.00pm
Last admissions are 30 minutes before the advertised closing time.

Admission:

Adults £2.50, concessions £1, children under 16 free.
All day on Fridays and from 3.30pm on other days - free.
Free entry for Art Fund members and members of the Friends of Guildhall Art Gallery
Free entry to City residents and workers

Bus routes: 242, 25, 8 and 501 (alight in Cheapside), 11,15, 23 and 26 (alight in Queen Victoria     Street), 43, 76, 133, 141, 214, 271 (alight in Moorgate), 172 (alight at London Wall).

Address:
Guildhall Art Gallery & Roman London's Amphitheatre
Guildhall Yard (off Gresham Street)
London EC2V 5AE