Fresh from the success of the 200th anniversary rehang and new Trafalgar Square entrance, the National Gallery (NG) in London, WC2, last week bullishly announced the next stage in its long-planned redevelopment strategy.
In the 1990s, the NG acquired St Vincent House — an office and hotel block built in 1967–70 by Charles Pike and Partners — immediately to the rear of the Sainsbury Wing. The intention was to secure a potential site for a future extension that could be directly linked to the main building.
What has now brought the project to life is the success of the NG in securing private funding of £375 million towards the estimated £400 million total cost. This includes two donations of £150 million respectively from Crankstart, the charitable foundation of Sir Michael Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman, and also from the Julia Rausing Trust.
These two key donations are the largest of their kind ever made and are a remarkable achievement in themselves. It merely emphasises the generosity of the donors that the Government’s grant-in-aid to the NG last year was £28.9 million (and falling). Extending a major museum in the heart of the capital will be expensive, particularly if this is going to be a building that answers the quality of the collection it will hold. By way of comparison, the ‘renaissance’ of the Louvre in Paris announced by President Macron has an estimated price tag of £675 million.
'It has the potential to transform the surrounding public realm, helping to connect, for example, Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square'
This fundraising initiative is also a heartening reminder that, for all the concerns about the future funding of museums in Britain, it is still possible at least for our national institutions to secure major private benefactions.
The project, which is intended to be completed by the early 2030s, is getting under way with an architectural competition for the extension. Tucked away in the streets behind the NG, this will necessarily be a more reticent addition than the Sainsbury Wing, which forms part of the main frontage. That said, it has the potential to transform the surrounding public realm, helping to connect, for example, Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square.
Such benefits, however, will be incidental. The central purpose of the extension is to hang more art; in this case about 250 more paintings. As well as creating a larger space with natural lighting for exhibitions, new services and facilities, the extension can provide gallery space to increase the scope of the narrative coverage of the NG into the 20th century.
By recent convention, it has been the case that the sister institution Tate has acquired art created after 1900. This division has never been clear cut, however, and it seems perfectly appropriate to Athena that as the 20th century recedes into history the NG as a gallery of European painting should extend its chronological range (and should do again in the future).
Simply put, this is a transformative initiative undertaken through private philanthropy to clear and universal benefit. What is there not to celebrate?
-
Made with porpoise blood, eaten with beaver tail: The not-so-normal history of the black puddingAncient, but still popular, both very global and very local, much loved and at one point fiercely disdained. Bound up within the beloved black pudding there’s so much culture, so much history, and so many stories.
-
The beautiful part of Britain where £1 million still buys a grand period house and a swathe of unspoilt landThe Scottish Borders might just be the best value spot in Britain today, as Arabella Youens reports.
-
Best in class: This year's Georgian Group Architectural Award winners revealedThe Georgian Group’s Architectural Awards, sponsored by Savills, attracted another outstanding crop of entries this year. We reveal the winners, as chosen by a panel of judges chaired by Country Life's Architectural Editor, John Goodall.
-
The rise, fall, rise and eventual demolition of a Welsh wonder with an intriguing link to the Duke of WestminsterMelanie Bryan delves into the Country Life archives and the history of one of Wales’s most extraordinary manor houses.
-
Exclusive: The House of Commons as you've never seen it before, 75 years on from reopening following its destruction during the BlitzThis year marks the 75th anniversary of the reopening of the House of Commons following the destruction of its predecessor in 1941 during the Blitz. John Goodall reports; photographs by Will Pryce.
-
Athena: This Government must open its eyes to the contribution that heritage and culture can make to our economyHeritage is a forgotten driver of growth laments our cultural crusader.
-
'A bluff, honest man in the trappings of greatness': The extraordinary story of the Foundling Hospital, and the sailor who saved the abandoned children of LondonA remarkable charitable endeavour to save abandoned children on the streets of London has a touching legacy in the form of the The Foundling Museum in the very centre of London. John Goodall tells its story; photographs by Will Pryce.
-
Where is 'The Traitors' filmed? Inside the Scottish castle sold via the pages of Country Life three times for an unbelievable amountMelanie Bryans delves into the Country Life archives and uncloaks the history of the turreted Highland castle made famous by the global TV franchise, 'The Traitors'.
-
Stefan Pitman: Making great country houses cost less to heat than a suburban semiThe trailblazing architect Stefan Pitman — founder of SPASE — joins the Country Life Podcast.
-
The Henry VII-era house that was dismantled piece by piece and shipped to the USAAgecroft Hall, near Manchester, didn't meet the same miserable end as some of Britain's other country homes. Instead, it was shipped to the USA and repurposed as a museum.
