National Gallery
NATIONAL GALLERY, TRAFALGAR SQUARE WC2
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1066236
- Date first listed:
- 05-Feb-1970
- List Entry Name:
- National Gallery
- Statutory Address:
- NATIONAL GALLERY, TRAFALGAR SQUARE WC2
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2001-09-04
- Reference:
- IOE01/05427/32
- Rights:
- © Mr Stephen Hodgson. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1066236
- Date first listed:
- 05-Feb-1970
- List Entry Name:
- National Gallery
- Statutory Address 1:
- NATIONAL GALLERY, TRAFALGAR SQUARE WC2
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- NATIONAL GALLERY, TRAFALGAR SQUARE WC2
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- City of Westminster (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 29961 80544
Details
TQ 2980 NE and 3080 NW CITY OF WESTMINSTER TRAFALGAR SQUARE, WC2 71/106; 72/134 5.2.70 National Gallery G.V. I Picture Gallery. 1832-38 by William Wilkins, built to "command" the north side of new square and house the Angerstein Collection, purchased by the government at the instance of George IV, as well as, originally, to accommodate the Royal Academy. Portland stone, concealed glazed gallery roofs. Fine, scholarly, Graeco-Roman classicism that reads well in perspective but is weak as a frontal composition with too even a balance in the accents that attempt to vary this long elevation. 2 storeys on plinth. 32 windows wide with central octastyle pedimented portico with secondary tetrastyle portico entrances and terminal pavilions. The central Corinthian portico is effectively raised on podium wall with flanking steps. Set back behind portico pediment is a stone cupolaed dome on stone drum. The centrepiece of the main portico is flanked by 2 giant pilastered bays before breaking back to the main wall plane of the wings. Architraved sash windows with cornices on ground floor, blind on 1st floor. The secondary Corinthian tetrastyle porticoes have parapets raised over central bay. The terminal pavilions have pairs of flanking giant pilasters and are surmounted by small octagonal stone cupolas with pierced work openings. 1st floor sill band; main entablature with dentil cornice and crowning balustraded parapet. The columns from Holland's demolished Carlton House were intended for the portico but in the end only bases and reworked capitals from Carlton House were reused for the secondary porticoes in the wings. On east facade frontal is a seated statue of Minerva by Flaxman made as a Britannia for Marble Arch. Existing interiors principally by E. M. Barry, 1867-76, vestibule and central hall by Sir J. Taylor, 1885-87. The National Gallery site had already been proposed for this purpose in Nash's Metropolitan Improvements as of course the overall plan of the square. Survey of London. Vol XX. Georgian London;John Summerson.
Listing NGR: TQ2996180544
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 207259
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Summerson, J, Georgian London, (1945)
Survey of London in Trafalgar Square and neighbourhood The Parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields Part 3: Volume 20 , Vol. 20, (1979)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 06-Jun-2026 at 18:24:15.
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