Art
#104
Dulwich Picture Gallery
The world’s first purpose-built public art gallery (1811–17) and still a masterclass in how to hang Old Masters. Soane’s top-lit suite makes Rembrandt, Poussin and friends read like theatre: even light, human scale, and a plan so influential it became the blueprint of the modern gallery.
Opening Hours
Sunday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Tuesday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Wednesday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Thursday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Friday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Saturday: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Admissions
Adult
£5.20
Child
£3.10
Concession
£4.70
Family
£13.50
What's not to miss inside?
Soane’s Top-Lit Enfilade
Prototype for museum design everywhereNatural light from above means paintings sit in calm shadow—your eyes do less work, your brain does more.
📍 Main suite of galleries
The Mausoleum
Collectors at the heart of the planFounders Bourgeois and Desenfans rest inside the gallery—Soane literally builds memory into circulation.
📍 Central chapel-like rotunda
Frames as Architecture
Gilded ‘rooms’ within roomsLook past the paint: carved frames stage the pictures and converse with Soane’s mouldings.
📍 Throughout
Inspire your Friends
- Rembrandt’s small portrait ‘Jacob de Gheyn III’ has been stolen four times from Dulwich—earning the nickname ‘the Takeaway Rembrandt’.
- Dulwich’s plan of linked, top-lit rooms became the template for 19th- and 20th-century galleries worldwide.
- The mausoleum in the plan isn’t an add-on: Soane designed the building around it, fusing memorial and museum.
