Overview

The National Portrait Gallery is a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. Therefore, it’s of interest to people who like history not just art lovers. The review is of my visit to the Pre-Raphaelite Sisters exhibition, which is on till 26 January 2020. Please note that the National Portrait Gallery is temporarily close to the public from 29 June 2020 until spring 2023, while essential building works take place. The re-development will include a significant refurbishment of the building, restoring historic features and creating a new visitor entrance and public forecourt on the building’s North side and enhancing the Gallery’s visibility and accessibility.

Transport & Parking

The nearest tube stations are Charing Cross, Leicester Square and Embankment but none of these stations are step free. The nearest step free station is Green Park from which a bus can take you to Trafalgar Square. The National Portrait Gallery is adjacent to Trafalgar Square where several buses stop close by.

Access

I used the St Martin’s Place entrance which had a single step and then a manual door. There is a step free entrance through the shop, which is next door to the main entrance. There was a choice of stairs with handrails or lift to the first floor into the main hall and ticket desk. The Pre-Raphaelite Sisters exhibition was also on the first floor. There was step free access to and throughout the exhibition. There were portable stools to sit on. The first gallery seating was located about half way though the exhibition, see photo. This was bench seating with no back support or arms. The portraits were displayed at standing height, many of them were quite large. There were a few other exhibits, pictures, letters and other paraphernalia which were displayed in glass cabinets, a couple of them were lying flat on a shelf at standing height, which would have been difficult for wheelchair users to view.

Toilets

There are 4 accessible toilets, located on Floors 0, -2, -3, 3. I didn’t use the toilet during my visit.

Staff

Staff were amazingly helpful. While in the exhibition, a member of staff approached me with a folding, portable stool and offered it to make my visit to the exhibition more comfortable. Later when the lift on the 4th floor was playing up and not moving, 2 members of staff arranged for us to be escorted in the staff lift down to the ground floor.

Anything else you wish to tell us?

Highly recommend this exhibition or a general visit to the gallery. Sorry for the lack of photos for this review. It was pouring with rain the day we visited and the journey there had used up a lot of my spoons.

Photos