National Portrait Gallery
🤓Tours
⭐ Highligts
Emin Entrance
45 bronze ‘everywomen’Tracey Emin’s 2023 bronze doors - 45 female faces - welcome you to the refreshed Gallery.
📍 Ross Place, main doors
Tudor Power
Earliest painted portraitSee the 1505 panel of Henry VII and Holbein’s court circle that set the Tudor image machine in motion.
📍 Tudor galleries
NPG 1: Shakespeare
First work acquiredThe ‘Chandos portrait’ was the Gallery’s first acquisition in 1856 - and the most argued-over face in English letters.
📍 Early modern rooms
Faces of Now
Rehang after 2023 refitFrom Malala to Marcus Rashford and Amy Winehouse, recent portraits show a changing, diverse Britain.
📍 Contemporary rooms
Gallery Flow
Refurbished circulationThe £41m renewal re-planned the route so history unfolds people-first, era by era.
📍 New entrance route
Opening Hours
🤓 Fun Facts
Founded in 1856, the National Portrait Gallery was the first gallery in the world devoted to portraits of famous people.
After a £41m redevelopment, the Gallery reopened in June 2023 with a new Ross Place entrance and Tracey Emin’s bronze doors of 45 women.
Victoria Siddall was appointed Director in 2024, succeeding Nicholas Cullinan.
The ‘Chandos portrait’ of Shakespeare (NPG 1) was the Gallery’s first acquisition in 1856.
The refurbished hang includes contemporary icons - from Malala Yousafzai to Kate Moss - alongside historic greats.
