Dulwich Picture Gallery

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  • Tue-Fri 10:00 - 17:00 , Sat-Sun 11:00 - 17:00

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Lonely Planet review

The UK's oldest public art gallery, the Dulwich Picture Gallery was designed by idiosyncratic architect Sir John Soane between 1811 and 1814 to house Dulwich College's collection of paintings by Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Poussin, Lely, Van Dyck and others. It's a wonderful, atmospheric place but with scarcely a dozen rooms to hang the artwork, limited wall space makes it difficult to view some of the paintings properly.

Unusually, the collectors, Noel Desenfans and painter Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois, chose to have their mausoleums, lit by a moody lumière mystérieuse (mysterious light) created with tinted glass, placed among the pictures. An annexe contains space for temporary exhibitions (additional around £3 ) - last seen: Canaletto in England 1746-1755. Free guided tours of the museum are available at on Saturday and Sunday.

The museum is a 10-minute walk northwards along Gallery Rd, which starts almost opposite West Dulwich station. Bus P4 links the gallery with the Horniman Museum .