Over the next few minutes we will be breaking down everything we know about art in London in full detail and our first section will fully cover the best art galleries and museums near you.
After that we will get into a variety of other topics like art supply stores, events, festivals, dealers, appraisers, walking tours, local sculptures and statues, art classes, studios for rent, and the top frame shops in your area.
You can jump straight to any section that interests you most by using the table of contents on the left and we are also including a London art map with all of the spots we mention throughout the post pinned on it.
And if you are curious check out all of our other posts on this country right there.
Best Art Galleries & Museums In London
The best London art galleries and museums are also some of the best in the world and we suggest you start with:
The Victoria and Albert Museum has a permanent collection of about 2.3 million objects dating back over 5,000 years and holds the world’s largest collection of Beatrix Potter works. They offer free admission and programs like art lessons, seminars, talks, and monthly free events.
The Victoria and Albert Museum is open from 10am to 5:45pm daily and on Fridays they don’t close until 10pm.
Tate Modern is one of the world’s largest museums of modern and contemporary art. There is no entrance fee to view the collection displays which are available from 10am to 6pm daily and the museum exhibits almost 70,000 artworks by prominent artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Claude Monet, Paul Klee, and others.
The National Gallery was founded in 1824 and houses a collection of over 2,300 artworks ranging from the mid-13th century to 1900. Highlights from the collection include Jan van Eyck’s “The Arnolfini Portrait,” Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Virgin of the Rocks,” Sandro Botticelli’s “Venus and Mars,” and Hans Holbein the Younger’s “The Ambassadors.” Each August they have a major event called the Inside Out Festival which is a month of free pop-up exhibitions, interactive activities, and giant replica paintings. Additionally they provide a broad range of programs including art classes, workshops, talks, live music, and performance and you can always get in for free from 10am to 6pm daily and until 9pm on Friday.
The Royal Academy of Arts hosts the annual Summer Exhibition which is the world’s largest open-submission art exhibition. They offer free admission and conduct exhibitions and events all year and even have one of the top contemporary fine art schools in your area. The Royal Academy also host major exhibitions by internationally recognized creators Tacita Dean and Renzo Piano. There are around 935 paintings, 350 sculptures, 700 plaster casts, 25,000 prints and sketches, and 5,000 vintage pictures in the museum’s collection which can be viewed from 10am to 6pm throughout the week and until 10pm on Friday nights.
Tate Britain is open to the public for free from 10am to 6pm every day with the exception of some exhibitions which require a fee. They have the world’s largest free display of J.M.W. Turner paintings and Mark Rothko’s Seagram murals. You will also find pieces in their highlights collection by John Singer Sargent, Francis Bacon, Henry Fuseli, and Richard Dadd.
National Portrait Gallery keeps regular hours of 10am to 5pm while holding one of the most extensive collection of portraits in the world with over 215,000 works.
The Sir John Soane’s Museum is free to enter and houses Sir John Soanes’ collection of antiquities, furniture, sculptures, architectural models, paintings including works by Hogarth, Turner and Canaletto, and over 30,000 architectural drawings.
The Hayward Gallery features a varied range of art forms and topics with a combination of free and paid activities and events while also providing local art classes and workshops for people of all ages.
Dulwich Picture Gallery houses an impressive collection of Old Masters paintings by Rembrandt, Poussin, Rubens, and Canaletto. The gallery is closed on Monday and Tuesday but open from 10am to 5pm the rest of the week.
Materials & Supplies Near You
There are quite a few stores in this city to buy art supplies and materials like:
Cass Art offers over 10,000 product lines from the world’s leading vendors including names like Winsor & Newton, Faber Castell, and Fabriano.
Jackson’s Art Supplies specializes in custom orders for the art materials you require for your practice.
In addition to being a great shop to buy art materials near you London Graphic Center provides printing services.
Great Art London sells supplies for all techniques including conventional fine arts, painting, drawing, sculpting and graphics, drawing, and model making. They also supply all the needed materials for your own customized canvasses, framing, and installation.
Ap Fitzpatrick provides a bespoke service that includes everything from making stretchers with particular surfaces to custom copper panels and offering technical consultations on mural commissions and varnishing, restretching, and repairing canvases.
The London Art Fair is an annual event held each January at the Business Design Centre in Islington. It is presented by over 120 galleries and private collectors and you can expect to find lectures, curated sections, and more.
Mayfair Art Weekend is an annual celebration of the world’s internationally renowned gallery district held in June. The event collaborates with a number of local art galleries to provide a comprehensive program of free exhibitions, events, performances and talks.
Inside Out is a free festival that brings art, entertainment, and culture to the streets featuring a pop-up exhibition of National Gallery masterpieces in Trafalgar Square during August.
Frieze London is an international contemporary art fair held in your area at Regent’s Park every October. The festival features over 170 contemporary art galleries as well as specially commissioned projects, talks, programs, and an artist-led education program.
Art Dealers & Appraisers
You might be able to add new works to your collection or find out the true value of something when you visit art dealers and appraisers near you like:
Aleph Contemporary provides collectors with a tailored service based on their preferences, budget, and goals. Curatorial advice is available for presentation, conservation, restoration, framing, mounting, transit, storage, and insurance. They can function as agents in the acquisition and sale of art both privately and at auction and can provide independent assessment and valuation as necessary.
Julian Simon Fine Art specializes in English and Continental paintings from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries.
Simon C Dickinson offers a discreet alternative to buying and selling at auction while negotiating purchases and sales on a commission basis. They also provide services in buying, selling, collection management, and appraisals.
Haynes Fine Art is the largest provincial fine art dealer in the UK of quality 19th to 21st century paintings outside of London. A wide range of services including art conservation and restoration, consultancy, appraisal, probate, and full-service framing are also available.
Walking Tours
Take a local art walking tour to see a lot of unique things in a couple of hours:
Urban Street Art Tours will introduce you to some of the best street art near you in the East End.
Camden Street Art Tours will take you to a side of Camden you never knew existed with 2 hour walking tours led by experts who will guide you through over 100 pieces of street art and graffiti and explain you about the incredible people who made them.
The Alternative London Street Art Walking Tour goes through the vibrant East End to discover the capital’s culture, creativity, and community while providing a wide range of interactive tours as well as unrivaled graffiti and street art workshops.
Sculptures & Statues
Some of the statues and sculptures in your area are incredible:
World Cup Sculpture at Green St
Henry Bartle Frere Statue at 140 Victoria Embankment
Pan Statue at S Carriage Dr
Newton after Blake at 96 Euston Rd
The Burghers of Calais at Abingdon St
The World Cup Sculpture is a bronze statue of the 1966 World Cup Final placed near the former Boleyn Ground, home of West Ham United Football Club. It was unveiled in 2003 and was sculpted by Royal Sculptor Philip Jackson.
The Henry Bartle Frere Statue was sculpted by Thomas Brock in 1887 and was unveiled on June 5, 1888.
The Pan Statue, also known as the Rush of Green, was created by Sir Jacob Epstein in 1961 and is located near Edinburgh Gate on the south side of Hyde Park.
Newton after Blake by Eduardo Paolozzi can be found on a high plinth in the piazza outside the British Library.
The Burghers of Calais is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin who created his original sculpture in 1889 to stand outside the town hall in Calais and then he later made four casts. It was purchased by the National Art Collection Fund in 1911 and installed at Victoria Tower Gardens.
London Art Classes
Some of the best art schools and classes near you for kids or adults can be found at:
Lavender Leonardos provides art classes for children and adults of all skill levels including group or private classes on a weekly term time or on a flexible schedule in addition to holiday and seasonal classes.
The University of the Arts has been ranked second in the world for Art & Design Universities and provides a wide range of courses in art, design, fashion, communication, and performing arts. They also have open day programs for anyone who is interested in studying at UAL.
Art Academy offers courses in your area for students of all skill levels and needs including a BA or foundation degree, evening sessions, weekend classes, and short courses.
Sunny Art Centre is a good place to try a variety of art and design courses for adults plus they have options for kids and teens including private classes, short courses, and live drawing classes. Sunny also offers art workshops and courses for businesses and corporations every day including weekends.
The Royal Drawing School offers daytime and evening classes for adults and children of all ages and abilities. Along with their public workshops and private lessons they provide a postgraduate-level drawing program, fully-funded international artists’ residencies, and a young artists program for 10 to 18 year olds with an aptitude for drawing.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, The Royal Academy of Arts, and The Hayward Gallery from the main list above also offer local art classes.
Studios For Rent Near You
Those of you who are ready to start a big project can try to rent art studio space at:
Canford & Co provides frames in a wide range of colors, finishes, widths, and patterns. They also have a selection of vintage and antique china and glass and can apply a variety of decorative techniques to make your art appear its best.
Soho Frames and Print offers same-day and emergency picture framing as well as quick turnaround on printing and frame services.
Canvas stretching, conservation framing, delivery and collecting, mount cutting, and reglazing are available at The London Framing Studio.
Newframes carries a broad choice of moulding for over 1,000 variations.
Other places that we have mentioned throughout this post that do quality custom picture and art framing in your area include Southbank Art Co and Haynes Fine Art.
Well guys, we tried to cover the full art scene near you to the best of our abilities. We listed the best local galleries, museums, events, shows, supply stores, dealers, appraisers, walking tours, sculptures, classes, studios, and framers in your area.
If you made it all the way to the end then you probably love art as much as us. It would be awesome if you would let us know about any of your own tips and tricks in the comments at the end of the post, and don’t be shy to mention if we got anything wrong or if anything we posted has become dated.
Have fun going to the galleries, museums, buying supplies or doing anything that has to do with art in London!
This post and all of the posts on our site are edited by Dan Soloman who has been a huge fan of art since he was a little kid. His mother was a good local artist, and she taught him the trade from a very early age. He studied art and its history in both high school and college, has worked at multiple galleries, and recently has begun creating and editing online content for this site and some other online media platforms.
