THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

Please browse the tours available – if you are would like to visit a museum that is not listed here or have a specialist interest, please contact me to discuss a tailored tour.

Next door to the National Gallery stands the National Portrait Gallery, which was the first gallery of its type when it opened in 1856 and still houses the world’s largest collection of paintings, cartoons, sketches and photographs of famous personalities and faces.

Apart from their own merits as works of art, these pictures are a wonderful and vivid way to bring to life the nation’s history. The men and women who shaped Britain from the late Middle Ages to the present day are all here: kings and queens; actors and writers; politicians and priests; sportspeople and Nobel Prize winners.

We will come face-to-face with William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I; learn about Henry VIII and his six unfortunate wives and explore the world of kings and their mistresses, famous courtesans, influential women, radicals, statesmen and soldiers. Whatever your particular interest, I will introduce you to the pictures and the stories of those whose contribution has left a mark on history, from Holbein to Hockney, Isaac Newton to Charles Darwin and Lord Nelson to Winston Churchill.

History will come to life before your eyes!

Why not complement a visit here with a tour of the National Gallery, right next door?