National Portrait Gallery Reviews

A fantastic venue with some stunning works on display

It was nice visiting this place. I enjoyed it. There are a lot of pictures, paintings, and sculptures of great people with a label showing their name and some information about them.

It's clearly worth spending a couple of hours here.

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Always nice to admire the pieces of art exhibited at the National Gallery.

Free and interesting, read the notes and learn so much more.

A carefully displayed history of portraiture through the ages. Really enjoyed the experience.

This is a wonderful gallery with the originals of portraits you have seen on the covers of biographies, on documentaries or staring out of the pages of history texts for your entire life. The Brontes, Byron, Shakespeare, Robert Burns and many other paintings you will have seen a thousand times are powerful in person.

Even at a decent pace you will need two hours to get around and see everything. It is set over three floors covering different periods. It is best to start at the top with the earliest works and work down. When getting to the 20th century i was surprised most by what is missing; no Beatles or even Lennon, no Bowie, only one or two movie or film stars. A great many artists that no average person knows or cares about. It is a national portrait gallery not a national gallery of self portraits after all.

The ludicrous snobbery of shunning John Lennon for Germaine Greer aside this is wonderful gallery. It will never be as popular as other galleries as they clearly have the attitude art is for the few and not the many in assembling their collect.

My only real negative is I found the staff rude an ill informed. Asking for directions to Byron got me several looks of distaste from pretentious looking staff and little help. At one point I tried to take a picture of a portrait and a miserable looking women literally ran over an wagged her finger at me. So I responded "the Tate Modern are fine with photography without flash and have friendly staff, perhaps that is why that gallery is popular".

So despite being very uninviting and ignoring popular culture when choosing displays it is worth it just to see the great period pieces.

Much less famous than the National Gallery, but no less interesting. If you know English history, its monarchs, it is more pleasant, but it is not necessary. A gallery of portraits of characters from English history, from Tudors to contemporary characters. One of the best museums in London, certainly. The part on Romanticism is the best, with the only portrait of Jane Austen.

Great and interesting fixed collection, also there are usually short terms exhibits, that while chargeable for admission, are usually worth it.

Some incredible masterpieces in buildings rich in architecture. All for free!! Usually have great exhibits as well (for nominal fer).

you can spend hours and hours and retrace English history

Lovely place. Lovely portraits. Lots of history. Find time. Visit it. It is worth a lot.

Just as good as all the other galleries. We'll set out and nice little cafe.

Nice exhibition, portraits from the 17th century. Recommend if you like portraits, but it s a bit monotonous after a while..

Amazing place. It tells the story of the English monarchy, as it brings many pieces of contemporary art. A must see, especially for being free admission.

Went to see annual exhibition. I felt it was more exciting than in the last few days.

We visited here as part of a treasure hunt across london Im not a massive meseum fan but i did enjoy looking around this place and the cafe was great had some really nice cakes

it is next to the national gallery. they are oil rethreads of important characters in history. I did not get to see much, but it entertained me a lot, since in addition to informing who the person of the painting was, it also indicated their participation in the story. The gift shop is good, entertaining ... but something expensive. the entry for free, so you have to take advantage.

Great Gallery very interesting paintings and a cloakroom where you can leave bags which is very important if you are a visitor to London.

Amazing exhibits of portraits of British Royals. Portraits that look so realistic.

Happy to finally see the Black is the New Black exhibition. Also recommend seeing the television programme.

A really wonderful collection, which we're lucky to have access to. A little bit challenging to get the more intimate dialogue with the work that is possible in other venues, with somewhat erratic exhibition design.

Something for everyone. All styles catered for. It's free. It's fun. Get some culture. Accessible and interesting. Go see

Great exhibitions, but check what's on. As although some areas in the NPG are free, it's not all free. Taylor Wessing always interesting if you are into photography.

It is a very important place worldwide because it has some of the most important portraits in the history of mankind, especially that of the virgin queen Isabel I and is that art here becomes personal advertising since many of these works of art they served as a presentation to demonstrate their level of wealth, their physical beauty or simply their power in the case of kings and queens. Obviously marriages were made for convenience and portraits were sent from one country to another but then the reality was different ... but it is interesting to study the psychological traits and their facial expressions and interpret what they wanted to say or how they would be in their daily lives. You can also connect with the portrait through his clothing or details of his time that tell you about the importance of the size or presence of certain colors and the social condition according to his wardrobe. In the National Portrait Gallery the images speak ... In addition the entrance is free, if you are in the city of London you have no excuse not to visit it.

Amanzing place. So many information about the history

Beautiful portraits, wonderful building and helpful staff.

Great museum for anyone who loves and appreciates the art of portraiture. A good place to look for inspiration.

Really enjoyed wandering about at our on speed. Some really spectacular pictures

Having it free makes it really worth it - you can pop in or out without feeling bad about how long you're there for. The paintings, though nothing unusual/very exciting, show how art and the way people are portrayed, evolve through time. Would definitely recommend.

Loved how cool it was during the heatwave. Good range of portraits but I thought there would be more

Endless rooms of art that you can spend a whole day looking around.

From entrance onwards it's a wonderful experience. Now living for nearly 10-years as an expat, this was one of the places I wanted to remind myself makes London such a world-class city. I used to head into the National Gallery sometimes at lunch when I worked in London, or in a spare moment on the way to the tube and trains, and it was good to remind myself why this remains a highlight of the UK's cultural ability to place museums and art at the centre of a city.

Lots to see, good "trails" to follow. Special exhibitions too pricey for ordinary folks imho, but lots of other things to see & some surprises along the way!
Would recommend

Beautiful portraits of truly remarkable people and events

An amazing permanent collection, sadly again the BP portrait competition is far more about a form of political and sociocultural correctness than the quality of the portraiture.

it was an impressive display of art however it began to feel quite tedious after about an hour

Love the NPG restaurant. Great food, great service, great view.

One of London's many gems. Usually has excellent exhibitions as well as the broader collection. Good mixture of styles and individuals.

easy to get around and plenty to see. washroom's clean . well can only comment on gentleman's :-)

Really enjoyed my visit here, love that these places are all free in the UK.

Probably not as well known as the National Gallery, this is a fascinating free gallery in London with many interesting and probably expensive photographs on display.

They do exhibitions and I liked the Bobby Moore photographs as they gave an insight into his life outside of football.

I enjoyed my visit although, as it is free and in Central London, so did a lot of other people so it was very busy and maybe not always the best way to admire the photographs

The staff was amazing and I love this gallery, but, you are missing so much of the Black and Ethnic Minority that helped made Britain so great, the RAF, the Army, the police, the nurses, the doctors, the creative collective and much more.if you want to encourage more Ethnic minorities to visit, you need to put on something that will reach out to them..

Amazing talent but why so many white middle aged men...surely we should be more diverse..what happened to celebrating farmers foresters nurses of both gender their all contributing to our great nation. Great history though

Visited the Michael Jackson exhibition this time and the annual portrait competition - both splendid! Cafe is always a treat too.

The most awesome collection of paintings from the rennaisance period and other times I have encountered.