Whitechapel Gallery

#49

An East End engine for new art since 1901, Whitechapel Gallery pairs risk-taking shows with community energy. Expect punchy, idea-led exhibitions across a compact set of rooms, excellent writing on the walls, and one of London’s deadliest art bookshops. It’s easy to do in 60–90 minutes; linger if the talks or films are on. Pay-what-you-can tickets appear for some headline shows, while much of the programme is free.

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Opening Hours

Sunday: 11:00 – 18:00

Tuesday: 11:00 – 18:00

Wednesday: 11:00 – 18:00

Thursday: 11:00 – 21:00

Friday: 11:00 – 18:00

Saturday: 11:00 – 18:00

What's not to miss inside?

Historic Foyer & Façade

Edwardian welcome with quirky details

Look up: the copper leaves and the cupola’s weather vane (Erasmus riding backwards, by Rodney Graham) quietly signal the gallery’s wit.

Step back across the pavement to photograph the whole frontage before you go in.

📍 Street entrance on Whitechapel High St

Flagship Exhibition

The big thesis show

From global retrospectives to urgent group shows, this is where the argument lands—briskly curated and readable.

Walk the rooms once without labels; loop again with texts to feel how the narrative locks in.

📍 Ground-floor main galleries

Archive & Community Rooms

Local voices, long memory

Artist projects sit beside education and archive displays, keeping the gallery plugged into its neighbourhood.

Scan for maps, posters and oral histories—small items that anchor the big ideas downstairs.

📍 Upper floors

Bookshop + Café

Thinking extends beyond the galleries

A compact, dangerous selection of photobooks, criticism and artist zines; the café bleeds into public space, so conversations spill over.

Set a book budget before entering. Seriously.

📍 Front of house and lower level

🤓 Fun Facts

Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ was shown here in 1939 to raise funds for Spanish war relief—East End queues wrapped around the block.

The 1956 exhibition ‘This Is Tomorrow’ helped launch British Pop Art, with Richard Hamilton’s now-iconic collage debuting in the show’s orbit.

Whitechapel gave Mark Rothko his first UK exhibition (1961) and staged an early Jackson Pollock memorial show (1958–59), decades before these painters were household names here.

The 2009 expansion stitched the gallery to the former Passmore Edwards Library next door—renewing a century-old link between art, books and the local public.