National Portrait Gallery

Inspiring People has focussed on revealing and making the most of every part of this handsome and richly decorative building.

Led by Jamie Fobert Architects, alongside heritage architects Purcell and a highly skilled design team, there has been a complete refurbishment and reconsideration of the building. The architectural interventions can be understood as a number of parallel projects, from a new public forecourt, which leads to a generous entry hall, to the creation of a dynamic new learning centre. The project has opened up windows, doors and areas that have been hidden for decades. By creating a new accessible entrance into the historic façade, the building has been reorientated to face the city, presenting a generous welcome and connecting the Gallery with the vibrant area of London on its doorstep.

Alongside the architectural project, the National Portrait Gallery has undertaken a comprehensive re-display and reinterpretation of the world’s largest collection of portraits which places people at its heart, to tell a richer story of history and culture in the United Kingdom.
London’s National Portrait Gallery was the first portrait gallery in the world. It is housed in a Grade I-Listed building, which, in 1896, was built specifically to create a permanent home for the national collection of portraits. Inspiring People has focussed on revealing and making the most of every part of this handsome and richly decorative building.

Led by Jamie Fobert Architects, alongside heritage architects Purcell and a highly skilled design team, there has been a complete refurbishment and reconsideration of the building. The architectural interventions can be understood as a number of parallel projects, from a new public forecourt, which leads to a generous entry hall, to the creation of a dynamic new learning centre. The project has opened up windows, doors and areas that have been hidden for decades. By creating a new accessible entrance into the historic façade, the building has been reorientated to face the city, presenting a generous welcome and connecting the Gallery with the vibrant area of London on its doorstep.

Alongside the architectural project, the National Portrait Gallery has undertaken a comprehensive re-display and reinterpretation of the world’s largest collection of portraits which places people at its heart, to tell a richer story of history and culture in the United Kingdom.

THE BRIEF

From the outset of the project, the Gallery has set out its key objectives for Inspiring People as follows:

·  To enhance the identity, profile and physical presence of the National Portrait Gallery, making the building accessible and welcoming to the widest and most diverse audience.
·  To preserve and enhance the architectural qualities of this fine Victorian building and Grade I Listed heritage asset, and to bring back to public life areas long closed and unappreciated, in particular, the East Wing.
·  To create a fit-for-purpose Learning Centre which will transform the experience of its users.
·  To enable an ambitious, engaging, comprehensive and unified re-display of the Collection, top-to-bottom, from the Tudors to now.
·  To ensure the Gallery’s ability to be sustainable, and to increase opportunities to generate income, safeguarding its future.

THE SITE

The National Portrait Gallery is housed in a purpose-built Grade I-Listed building, designed by Ewan Christian and opened in 1896. Ewan Christian was well known at the time as an ecclesiastical architect, but this was his first public building. Highly decorated features — large round-headed arches, windows and doors, Corinthian pilasters, delicate columns, elaborate cornices and roundels — contribute to the character and appearance of this beautiful building.

Christian configured most of the galleries in a large block within the North Wing, and a second set of galleries along a narrow strip of land which runs down the East side of the National Gallery. Connecting these two Wings was an entrance block with a grand stair.

The galleries were extended with the later addition of the Duveen wing in the 1930s by the Government Office of Works, thanks to a donation from Joseph Duveen, and designed by the Architect Sir Richard Allison. More recently, Dixon Jones’s Ondaatje Wing, which opened in 2000, improved circulation and added a generous inner hall, basement lecture theatre and, for the first time, restaurant and café spaces.

THE ARCHITECTS: A COLLABORATION

Over the past five years, Jamie Fobert Architects has led the design team through all stages of the project, bringing to bear their expertise in the design of galleries and public buildings and working with complex historic sites.

In their role as collaborating Heritage Architect, Purcell, led by Liz Smith, have been integral to the design process, working alongside Jamie Fobert Architects through all project stages from the design competition to project delivery. The strong collaboration enabled the design thinking to evolve from an understanding of what might be possible in such a significant heritage context.

Purcell’s expertise in historical research informed Jamie Fobert Architects’s design decisions, forming an interaction between past, present and future, identifying opportunities for change that transform and enrich the visitor experience with a coherent holistic harmony that lets Ewan Christian’s architectural voice soar through into the new light filled foyer and galleries.