116-736: Upper Norwood is an area of south London, England, within the London Boroughs of Bromley , Croydon , Lambeth and Southwark . It is north of Croydon . The eastern part of it is better known as the Crystal Palace area. The SE19 London postcode covers the entirety of the district. Upper Norwood is one of the highest areas in London, situated along the London clay ridge known as Beulah Hill, which offers panoramic views northwards to central London and southwards to Central Croydon and
232-524: A Parthenon -like building for the Royal Academy would occupy the centre of the square. Economic recession prevented this scheme from being built, but a competition for the Mews site was eventually held in 1831, for which Nash submitted a design with Charles Robert Cockerell as his co-architect. Nash's popularity was waning by this time, however, and the commission was awarded to William Wilkins , who
348-418: A British school of painting could only flourish if it had access to the canon of European painting. The British Institution , founded in 1805 by a group of aristocratic connoisseurs, attempted to address this situation. The members lent works to exhibitions that changed annually, while an art school was held in the summer months. However, as the paintings that were lent were often mediocre, some artists resented
464-574: A European style. Its sale was controversial in the United States. In 2018, the National Gallery was one of the first public galleries in London to charge more than £20 for admission to a special exhibition, the exhibition in question being of works by Claude Monet . In February 2019, an employment tribunal ruled that the gallery had incorrectly classed its team of educators as self-employed contractors. The educators were awarded
580-458: A London average of 42.64% and 8.62%, respectively. Residents were predominantly owner-occupiers, with 32.53% owning their house outright, and a further 42.73% owning with a mortgage. Only 1.42% were in local authority housing , with a further 12.74% renting from a housing association , or other registered social landlord. A study in 2017 showed that Bromley had the second lowest poverty rate (15%) of any London borough. The following table shows
696-517: A Mormon service being conducted in St. Paul's Cathedral as to see the exhibition of the works of the modern French Art-rebels in the sacred precincts of Trafalgar Square". Perhaps as a result of such attitudes, Lane amended his will with a codicil that the works should only go to Ireland, but crucially this was never witnessed. Lane died on board the RMS ; Lusitania in 1915, and a dispute began which
812-424: A car or van, 1.5%. The Borough has several sporting clubs: The borough is also home to an extensive libraries service , containing 14 branches, currently operated by Greenwich Leisure Limited under their trademark Better on behalf of Bromley council. The Beckenham Comedy Cabaret, a monthly comedy cabaret event, hosted and run by Jody Kamali, has been running in the heart of Beckenham since 2015, usually on
928-522: A century, resulting in a building of clear symmetry. Pennethorne's gallery was demolished for the next phase of building, a scheme by Sir John Taylor extending northwards of the main entrance. Its glass-domed entrance vestibule had painted ceiling decorations by the Crace family firm, who had also worked on the Barry Rooms. A fresco intended for the south wall was never realised. Later additions to
1044-593: A clip of the television drama series Grange Hill . The store was acquired by Morrisons in March 2004, who closed it in November 2005. The lease of the vacant store was purchased by Sainsbury's in August 2006. The hilly nature of the land has restricted the construction of railways through the district. The former branch line terminus at Crystal Palace High Level railway station which opened in 1865 closed in 1954, and
1160-578: A collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 . The current director of the National Gallery is Gabriele Finaldi . The National Gallery is an exempt charity , and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport . Its collection belongs to the government on behalf of the British public, and entry to the main collection is free of charge. Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe,
1276-511: A competition for design proposals to upgrade the Sainsbury Wing. A letter written in 1990 by one of the donors, John Sainsbury , was discovered in 2023 during the demolition of two false columns in which he argued that "the false columns are a mistake of the architect and that we would live to regret our accepting this detail of his design." In 2024, excavations for the Sainsbury Wing extension at Jubilee Walk uncovered evidence that
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#17327724059561392-579: A director, whose authority would surpass that of the trustees. Many thought the position would go to the German art historian Gustav Friedrich Waagen , whom the gallery had consulted on previous occasions about the lighting and display of the collections. However, the man preferred for the job by Queen Victoria , Prince Albert and the Prime Minister, Lord John Russell , was the Keeper of Paintings at
1508-482: A dog named " Pickles ". The story made national headlines. St Joseph's College is a Roman Catholic boys' secondary school which was first established in Upper Norwood in 1855. The school operates a coeducational sixth form . Harris Academy Beulah Hill was established in the area as Westwood High School in 1958. The Cedars School and The Laurels School are Roman Catholic independent schools located on
1624-592: A number of notable residents over the years have been lived have been recognised with blue plaques these residents include: 51°20′N 0°05′E / 51.333°N 0.083°E / 51.333; 0.083 National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster , in Central London , England. Founded in 1824, it houses
1740-528: A ready-made national collection to the British government; he and his partner Sir Francis Bourgeois had assembled it for the king of Poland , before the Third Partition in 1795 abolished Polish independence. This offer was declined and Bourgeois bequeathed the collection to his old school, Dulwich College , on his death. The collection opened in 1814 in Britain's first purpose-built public gallery,
1856-576: A record-setting grant of £87,500 from the Treasury , brought the gallery's "golden age of collecting" to an end, as its annual purchase grant was suspended for several years thereafter. When the gallery purchased Holbein 's Ambassadors from the Earl of Radnor in 1890, it did so with the aid of private individuals for the first time in its history. In 1897, the formation of the National Gallery of British Art, known unofficially from early in its history as
1972-571: A request from an artist to see Rembrandt 's Portrait of Margaretha de Geer (a new acquisition) resulted in the "Picture of the Month" scheme, in which a single painting was removed from Manod and exhibited to the general public in the National Gallery each month. The art critic Herbert Read , writing that year, called the National Gallery "a defiant outpost of culture right in the middle of a bombed and shattered metropolis". The paintings returned to Trafalgar Square in 1945. The last major outcry against
2088-551: A road to Carlton House Terrace . In 1832, construction began on a new building by William Wilkins on the northern half of the site of the old Royal Mews in Charing Cross , after the transformation of its southern half into Trafalgar Square in the late 1820s. The location was a significant one, between the wealthy West End and poorer areas to the east. The argument that the collection could be accessed by people of all social classes outstripped other concerns, such as
2204-694: A stained glass window by Ninian Comper , who lived in the area. Upper Norwood Library in Westow Hill, the only independent public library in the UK, was built in 1899 by joint agreement of the London Borough of Croydon and the London Borough of Lambeth. The library holds a Local History Collection of the Upper Norwood district and the Crystal Palace. A notable park in the area is Upper Norwood Recreation Ground . Its 19-acre (77,000 m) site
2320-457: A studio to contemporary artists to create work based on the permanent collection. They usually hold the position of associate artist for two years and are given an exhibition in the National Gallery at the end of their tenure. The respective remits of the National and Tate Galleries, which had long been contested by the two institutions, were more clearly defined in 1996. 1900 was established as
2436-607: A tower, similar to that of the Rogers scheme. The proposal was dropped after the Prince of Wales compared the design to a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend". The term "monstrous carbuncle", for a modern building that clashes with its surroundings, has since become commonplace. One of the conditions of the 1982 competition was that the new wing had to include commercial offices as well as public gallery space. However, in 1985 it became possible to devote
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#17327724059562552-460: A wilderness close to the southern edge of the ever-expanding city of London. The name "Norwood" is a contraction of "North Wood" (and should not be confused with Northwood or Norwood Green , both in west London). Local legend has it that Sir Francis Drake 's ship, the Golden Hind , was made from timber cut from trees in this area. The forest was a popular area for Londoners' recreation until
2668-551: Is a borough in London , England. It borders the county of Kent , of which it formed part until 1965. The borough's population in the 2021 census was 329,991. It is named after Bromley , its principal district. Other districts are Penge , Hayes , West Wickham , Chislehurst , Beckenham and Orpington . The local authority is Bromley London Borough Council . The borough is the largest in Greater London by area and occupies 59 square miles (153 km ). The majority of
2784-470: Is also a high volume pump at the station. Beckenham, Bromley and Biggin Hill cover the rest of the borough with four pumping appliances and a hose layer. In 2006/2007 just under 4000 incidents were attended in the borough. Noticeably, compared to 2005/2006 there was an 11% decrease in special service calls (road traffic collisions, chemical incidents, flooding etc.). Bromley is twinned with: The locations
2900-695: Is part of the Harold Road Conservation Area. Its boundary is defined by Chevening Road, Hermitage Road, Eversley Road and Harold Road. One of London's hidden rivers, River Effra flows under the park and at the Harold Road end a wellhead exists. It was covered in the 1940s. The Upper Norwood Recreation Ground was a location in Patrick Keiller 's 1983 film, Norwood , and in Chris Shepherd 's 2010 film Bad Night for
3016-644: Is still honoured as of 2024, but his bequest has never been adequately displayed in its entirety; today the works are divided between Trafalgar Square and the Clore Gallery, a small purpose-built extension to Tate Britain completed in 1985. The third director, Sir Frederic William Burton , laid the foundations of the collection of 18th-century art and made several outstanding purchases from English private collections. The acquisition in 1885 of two paintings from Blenheim Palace , Raphael's Ansidei Madonna and van Dyck's Equestrian Portrait of Charles I , with
3132-666: The Angerstein collection , and that a suitable building was to be found. The unexpected repayment of a war debt by Austria finally moved the government to buy Angerstein's collection, for £57,000. The National Gallery opened in 1824 in Angerstein's former townhouse at No. 100 Pall Mall . Angerstein's paintings were joined in 1826 by those from Beaumont's collection, and in 1831 by the Reverend William Holwell Carr 's bequest of 35 paintings. Initially
3248-560: The Dulwich Picture Gallery . The Scottish dealer William Buchanan and the collector Joseph Count Truchsess both formed art collections expressly as the basis for a future national collection, but their respective offers (both made in 1803) were also declined. Following the Walpole sale many artists, including James Barry and John Flaxman , had made renewed calls for the establishment of a National Gallery, arguing that
3364-598: The Farnborough Airshow . The sponsorship deal was ended a year early after protests. In February 2014, the gallery purchased Men of the Docks by the American artist George Bellows for $ 25.5 million (£15.6 million). It was the first major American painting to be purchased by the gallery. The director, Nicholas Penny , termed the painting a new direction for the gallery, a non-European painting in
3480-594: The North Downs . Most housing dates from the 19th and 20th centuries, with large detached properties along the ridge and smaller, semi-detached and terraced dwellings on the slopes. There are some more modern areas of social housing that date from the 1970s, as well as the recent construction of larger apartment buildings on Beulah Hill. For centuries, Upper Norwood was occupied by the Great North Wood , an extensive area of natural oak forest which formed
3596-485: The Paris Observatory , using trigonometry . It was particularly useful for this purpose on account of both its height and its relative proximity to Greenwich. In 1831, one of England's most prominent architects, Decimus Burton , designed a spa and pleasure gardens below Beulah Hill and off what is now Spa Hill in a bowl of land on the south facing side of the hill around a spring of chalybeate water. Burton
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3712-730: The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg . A plan to acquire 150 paintings from the Orléans collection , which had been brought to London for sale in 1798, also failed, despite the interest of both the King and the Prime Minister, Pitt the Younger . The twenty-five paintings from that collection now in the gallery, including "NG1", arrived later by a variety of routes. In 1799, the dealer Noël Desenfans offered
3828-667: The Tate Gallery , allowed some British works to be moved off-site, following the precedent set by the Vernon collection and the Turner Bequest. Works by artists born after 1790 were moved to the new gallery on Millbank , which allowed Hogarth , Turner and Constable to remain in Trafalgar Square. The agricultural crisis at the turn of the 20th century caused many aristocratic families to sell their paintings, but
3944-497: The Tramlink network. Stations operated by London Overground (all are also served by Southern ): National Rail stations: Tramlink stops: In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: driving a car or van, 27.4% of all residents aged 16–74; train, 5.1%; bus, minibus or coach, 5.1%; on foot, 4.3%; work mainly at or from home, 4.0%; underground, metro, light rail, tram, 2.3%; passenger in
4060-531: The "Hampton's site" to the west of the main building, where a department store of the same name had stood until its destruction in the Blitz . The gallery had long sought expansion into this space and in 1982 a competition was held to find a suitable architect; the shortlist included a radical high-tech proposal by Richard Rogers , among others. The design that won the most votes was by the firm Ahrends, Burton and Koralek , who then modified their proposal to include
4176-559: The 19th century, when it began to be built over. It was also a haunt of Gypsies , with many local street names and pubs recording the link, notably Gipsy Hill . The area still retains woodland in large amounts for an urban area. The Beulah Hill ridge was used as a sighting-point for the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) , which measured the precise distance between the Royal Greenwich Observatory and
4292-482: The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Lundenwic extended further to the west than had previously been supposed. In the National Gallery on 10 March 1914, Velázquez's Rokeby Venus was damaged by Mary Richardson , a campaigner for women's suffrage , in protest against the arrest of Emmeline Pankhurst the previous day. Later that month another suffragette attacked five Bellinis , causing the gallery to close until
4408-546: The Blues . The Croydon transmitting station , a TV transmitter tower, stands on the hill at Upper Norwood and a second larger TV transmitter, the Crystal Palace transmitting station , stands in Crystal Palace Park. Together these make the district a landmark location, visible from any part of the London area. In 1985 a Safeway supermarket opened on Westow Street. In 1990 the exterior of this branch featured in
4524-509: The British national collections were priced out of the market by American plutocrats. This prompted the foundation of the National Art-Collections Fund , a society of subscribers dedicated to stemming the flow of artworks to the United States. Their first acquisition for the National Gallery was Velázquez 's Rokeby Venus in 1906, followed by Holbein 's Portrait of Christina of Denmark in 1909. However, despite
4640-585: The Civic Centre at Bromley Palace . Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly , the borough forms part of the Bexley and Bromley constituency. In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 8,944. This rose slowly throughout the nineteenth century, as the district became built up; reaching 17,192 in the middle of the century. When the railways arrived,
4756-724: The East Wing Project, which would provide a future ground level entrance, and the public opening of some small rooms at the far eastern end of the building acquired as part of the swap with the National Portrait Gallery. This might include a new public staircase in the bow on the eastern façade. No timetable has been announced for these additional projects. In April 2021, a jury short-listed six firms of architects – Caruso St John , David Chipperfield Architects , Asif Kahn, David Kohn Architects , Selldorf Architects , and Witherford Watson Mann Architects – in
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4872-497: The Hon. Simon Sainsbury and Sir Timothy Sainsbury , had made a donation that would enable the construction of the Sainsbury Wing. The directorship of Neil MacGregor saw a major rehang at the gallery, dispensing with the classification of paintings by national school that had been introduced by Eastlake. The new chronological hang sought to emphasise the interaction between cultures rather than fixed national characteristics, reflecting
4988-500: The Institution and saw it as a racket for the gentry to increase the sale prices of their Old Master paintings. One of the Institution's founding members, Sir George Beaumont, Bt , would eventually play a major role in the National Gallery's foundation by offering a gift of 16 paintings. In 1823, another major art collection came on the market, which had been assembled by the recently deceased John Julius Angerstein . Angerstein
5104-563: The Keeper of Paintings, William Seguier , bore the burden of managing the gallery, but in July 1824 some of this responsibility fell to the newly formed board of trustees. The National Gallery at Pall Mall was frequently overcrowded and hot, and its diminutive size in comparison with the Louvre in Paris was a cause of national embarrassment. But Agar-Ellis, by then a trustee of the gallery, appraised
5220-464: The Muses includes portraits of Virginia Woolf and Greta Garbo , subverting the high moral tone of its Victorian forebears. In place of Christianity's seven virtues , Anrep offered his own set of Modern Virtues , including "Humour" and "Open Mind"; the allegorical figures are again portraits of his contemporaries, including Winston Churchill, Bertrand Russell and T. S. Eliot . In the 20th century,
5336-537: The National Gallery (as suggested by Sir Charles Barry in 1853), or to move it to more capacious premises in Kensington , where the air was also cleaner. In 1867 Barry's son Edward Middleton Barry proposed to replace the Wilkins building with a massive classical building with four domes. The scheme was a failure and contemporary critics denounced the exterior as "a strong plagiarism upon St Paul's Cathedral". With
5452-494: The National Gallery began in 1844 after Eastlake's appointment as Keeper, and was the subject of attacks in the press after the first three paintings to receive the treatment – a Rubens , a Cuyp and a Velázquez – were unveiled to the public in 1846. The gallery's most virulent critic was J. Morris Moore, who wrote a series of letters to The Times under the pseudonym "Verax" savaging the institution's cleanings. While an 1853 Parliamentary select committee set up to investigate
5568-490: The National Gallery in exchange for land for its 2000 extension. The first phase, the East Wing Project designed by Jeremy Dixon and Edward Jones , opened to the public in 2004. This provided a new ground level entrance from Trafalgar Square, named in honour of Sir Paul Getty . The main entrance was also refurbished, and reopened in September 2005. Possible future projects include a "West Wing Project" roughly symmetrical with
5684-456: The National Gallery was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein in 1824. After that initial purchase, the gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, especially Charles Lock Eastlake , and by private donations, which now account for two-thirds of
5800-404: The National Gallery, was designed by William Wilkins . Building began in 1832 and it opened to the public in 1838. Only the façade onto Trafalgar Square remains essentially unchanged from this time, as the building has been expanded piecemeal throughout its history. Wilkins's building was often criticised for the perceived weaknesses of its design and for its lack of space; the latter problem led to
5916-494: The National Gallery. A 1947 commission concluded that no damage had been done in the recent cleanings. In the post-war years, acquisitions have become increasingly difficult for the National Gallery as the prices for Old Masters – and even more so for the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists – have risen beyond its means. Some of the gallery's most significant purchases in this period would have been impossible without
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#17327724059566032-482: The North Galleries, by then considered to "lack a positive architectural character", were remodelled in a classical style, albeit a simplified one. The most important addition to the building in the late 20th century was the Sainsbury Wing, designed by the postmodernist architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown to house the collection of Renaissance paintings and built in 1991. The building occupies
6148-827: The Orpington Urban District. Knockholt railway station however remains in Orpington . The borough is partly urban and partly rural, the former to the north and very much part of the built-up area of suburban London. The principal parts of the northern section, from west to east, are Beckenham , which includes Eden Park and Elmers End ; Bromley with Bickley , Bromley Park and Bromley Common , Park Langley, Plaistow, Shortlands and Southborough; Chislehurst , with Elmstead and Sundridge . The built-up area around Orpington not only encompasses its direct outskirts of Chelsfield , Crofton, Derry Downs, Goddington , Kevingtown, and Petts Wood ; it also includes
6264-609: The Tate. The director Kenneth Clark 's decision in 1939 to label a group of Venetian paintings, Scenes from Tebaldeo's Eclogues , as works by Giorgione was controversial at the time, and the panels were soon identified as works by Andrea Previtali by a junior curator Clark had appointed. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War the paintings were evacuated to locations in Wales , including Penrhyn Castle and
6380-646: The Victorian circus and achieve immortality in the Beatles song Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! The spa closed in 1856, soon after the opening nearby of The Crystal Palace . The Crystal Palace was rebuilt nearby on Sydenham Hill in 1854, following its success at The Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park . It was destroyed in a spectacular fire in 1936. The importance of this building and its impact on
6496-487: The Wilkins façade a "much-loved and elegant friend", in contrast to a proposed extension. ( See below ) The first significant alteration made to the building was the single, long gallery added by Sir James Pennethorne in 1860–1861. Ornately decorated in comparison with the rooms by Wilkins, it nonetheless worsened the cramped conditions inside the building as it was built over the original entrance hall. Unsurprisingly, several attempts were made either to completely remodel
6612-441: The aim being to create neutral settings which did not distract from contemplation of the paintings. But the gallery's commitment to modernism was short-lived: by the 1980s Victorian style was no longer considered anathema, and a restoration programme began to restore the 19th- and early 20th-century interiors to their purported original appearance. This began with the refurbishment of the Barry Rooms in 1985–1986. From 1996 to 1999 even
6728-443: The area in the early 1870s, including in neighbouring Sydenham , producing scenes such as a view from Fox Hill, Upper Norwood , now in the National Gallery and the Crystal Palace painted from the Parade, now in the Art Institute of Chicago . In March 1966, shortly before the World Cup tournament , the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen from an exhibition at Central Hall Westminster . It was found seven days later in Beulah Hill by
6844-411: The arrangement of a dome and two diminutive turrets on the roofline to "the clock and vases on a mantelpiece, only less useful". Sir Charles Barry 's landscaping of Trafalgar Square, from 1840, included a north terrace so that the building would appear to be raised, thus addressing one of the points of complaint. Opinion on the building had mellowed considerably by 1984, when Prince Charles called
6960-416: The backing of major public appeals; the departing director Charles Saumarez Smith expressed his frustration at this situation in 2007. The National Gallery was sponsored by the Italian arms manufacturer Finmeccanica between October 2011 and October 2012. The sponsorship deal allowed the company to use gallery spaces for gatherings, and the gallery was used to host delegates during the DSEI arms fair and
7076-421: The borough is Metropolitan Green Belt , including nearly all of the land south of the A232-A21 route between West Wickham and Pratt's Bottom. Consequently, it is also perhaps the most rural borough and contains more of the North Downs than any other, as that escarpment is broad between Bromley and Banstead. This is also reflected in its population density, which is the lowest of the 32 London boroughs. Most of
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#17327724059567192-411: The borough: Hayes and West Wickham . Biggin Hill , Downe and Keston with Leaves Green and Nash are separate, smaller, rural settlements. Local attractions include Down House (the home of Charles Darwin ), Chislehurst Caves , Holwood House (the home of William Pitt the Younger ), Crofton Roman Villa , and the site of The Crystal Palace . The local authority is Bromley Council, based at
7308-427: The boundaries of the London County Council and Metropolitan Board of Works , voting to leave in 1899 to become self-governing until 1965. The area was transferred from Kent to Greater London, to become one of the 32 London boroughs. In 1969, after a local campaign, the village of Knockholt was removed from the borough and transferred to the neighbouring Sevenoaks Rural District ; before 1965, it had been part of
7424-509: The building to be one room deep, as a workhouse and a barracks lay immediately behind. To exacerbate matters, there was a public right of way through the site to these buildings, which accounts for the access porticoes on the eastern and western sides of the façade. These had to incorporate columns from the demolished Carlton House , and their relative shortness resulted in an elevation that was deemed excessively low, thus failing to provide Trafalgar Square with its desired commanding focal point to
7540-400: The change in art-historical values since the 19th century. In other respects, however, Victorian tastes were rehabilitated: the building's interiors were no longer considered an embarrassment and were restored, and in 1999 the gallery accepted a bequest of 26 Italian Baroque paintings from Sir Denis Mahon . Earlier in the 20th century many considered the Baroque to be beyond the pale: in 1945
7656-455: The clubhouses on Pall Mall, the Scala Regia in the Vatican, Victorian warehouses and Ancient Egyptian temples. Following the pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square, the gallery is currently engaged in a masterplan to convert the vacated office space on the ground floor into public space. The plan will also fill in disused courtyards and make use of land acquired from the adjoining National Portrait Gallery in St Martin's Place, which it gave to
7772-420: The collection. The collection is smaller than many European national galleries, but encyclopaedic in scope; most major developments in Western painting "from Giotto to Cézanne " are represented with important works. It used to be claimed that this was one of the few national galleries that had all its works on permanent exhibition, but this is no longer the case. The present building, the third site to house
7888-406: The continent and to Italy in particular, seeking out appropriate paintings to buy for the gallery. In all, he bought 148 pictures abroad and 46 in Britain, among the former such seminal works as Paolo Uccello 's The Battle of San Romano . Eastlake also amassed a private art collection during this period, consisting of paintings that he knew did not interest the trustees. His ultimate aim, however,
8004-434: The crisis in aristocratic fortunes, the following decade was one of several great bequests from private collectors. In 1909, the industrialist Ludwig Mond gave 42 Italian Renaissance paintings, including the Mond Crucifixion by Raphael , to the gallery. Other bequests of note were those of George Salting in 1910, Austen Henry Layard in 1916 and Sir Hugh Lane in 1917. The initial reception of Impressionist art at
8120-399: The cut-off point for paintings in the National Gallery, and in 1997 more than 60 post-1900 paintings from the collection were given to the Tate on a long-term loan, in return for works by Gauguin and others. However, future expansion of the National Gallery may yet see the return of 20th-century paintings to its walls. In the 21st century there have been three large fundraising campaigns at
8236-404: The decorative programme of the rooms did not take their intended contents into account; the ceiling of the 15th- and 16th-century Italian gallery, for instance, was inscribed with the names of British artists of the 19th century. However, despite these failures, the Barry Rooms provided the gallery with a strong axial groundplan; this was to be followed by all subsequent additions to the gallery for
8352-507: The demolition of the workhouse, however, Barry was able to build the gallery's first sequence of grand architectural spaces, from 1872 to 1876. Built to a polychrome Neo-Renaissance design, the Barry Rooms were arranged on a Greek cross plan around a huge central octagon. Though it compensated for the underwhelming architecture of the Wilkins building, Barry's new wing was disliked by Gallery staff, who considered its monumental aspect to be in conflict with its function as exhibition space. Also,
8468-529: The descendants of Sir Robert Walpole put his collection up for sale. The MP John Wilkes argued for the government to buy this "invaluable treasure" and suggested that it be housed in "a noble gallery... to be built in the spacious garden of the British Museum". Nothing came of Wilkes's appeal and 20 years later the collection was bought in its entirety by Catherine the Great ; it is now to be found in
8584-411: The erstwhile separate settlements of Farnborough , Green Street Green , Pratt's Bottom , St Mary Cray and St Paul's Cray . Other smaller suburban areas include Penge , Anerley , and parts of nearby Crystal Palace including its park . In addition, parts of Mottingham , Sydenham , Swanley and Ruxley lie within the borough boundaries. There are two main built-up areas in the southern part of
8700-482: The establishment of the Tate Gallery for British art in 1897. The Sainsbury Wing, a 1991 extension to the west by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown , is a significant example of Postmodernist architecture in Britain. The late 18th century saw the nationalisation of royal or princely art collections across mainland Europe. The Bavarian royal collection (now in the Alte Pinakothek , Munich) opened to
8816-539: The ethnic group of respondents in the 2001 and 2011 census in Bromley. The following shows the religious identity of residents residing in Bromley according to the 2001, 2011 and the 2021 censuses. Bromley is one of only six London Boroughs not to have at least one London Underground station within its boundaries. However, the borough has many railway stations served by London Overground , Thameslink , Southeastern and Southern . The borough also has several stops on
8932-420: The extension entirely to the gallery's uses, due to a donation of almost £50 million from Lord Sainsbury and his brothers Simon and Sir Tim Sainsbury . A closed competition was held, and the schemes produced were noticeably more restrained than in the earlier competition. In contrast with the rich ornamentation of the main building, the galleries in the Sainsbury Wing are pared down and intimate, to suit
9048-399: The first 30 years of its existence the trustees' independent acquisitions were mainly limited to works by High Renaissance masters. Their conservative tastes resulted in several missed opportunities and the management of the gallery later fell into complete disarray, with no acquisitions being made between 1847 and 1850. A critical House of Commons report in 1851 called for the appointment of
9164-469: The first air-conditioned gallery opening in 1949. For the course of the war Myra Hess and other musicians, such as Moura Lympany , gave daily lunch-time recitals in the empty building in Trafalgar Square, to raise public morale as every concert hall in London was closed. Art exhibitions were held at the gallery as a complement to the recitals. The first of these was British Painting since Whistler in 1940, organised by Lillian Browse , who also mounted
9280-647: The former site of Virgo Fidelis Convent Senior School on Central Hill, founded in 1848. They occupy an eighteenth-century grand house, once the home of the notable socialite and courtesan Mary Nesbitt . The Church of England Parish Church of St John the Evangelist on Sylvan Road, completed in 1887, is a notable example of the work of the architect John Loughborough Pearson . Designed in the Gothic Revival style, this Grade II* listed red brick building features some significant interior stone decoration and
9396-528: The frontispiece of Contrasts (1836), an influential tract by the Gothicist Augustus Pugin , as an example of the degeneracy of the classical style. Even William IV (in his last recorded utterance) thought the building a "nasty little pokey hole", while William Makepeace Thackeray called it "a little gin shop of a building". The twentieth-century architectural historian Sir John Summerson echoed these early criticisms when he compared
9512-454: The gallery was exceptionally controversial. In 1906, Sir Hugh Lane promised 39 paintings, including Renoir 's Umbrellas , to the National Gallery on his death, unless a suitable building could be built in Dublin . Although eagerly accepted by the director Charles Holroyd , they were received with extreme hostility by the trustees; Lord Redesdale wrote that "I would as soon expect to hear of
9628-444: The gallery's late Victorian interiors fell out of fashion. The Crace ceiling decorations in the entrance hall were not to the taste of the director Charles Holmes , and were obliterated by white paint. The North Galleries, which opened to the public in 1975, marked the arrival of modernist architecture at the National Gallery. In the older rooms, the original classical details were effaced by partitions, daises and suspended ceilings,
9744-462: The gallery's trustees declined to buy a Guercino from Mahon's collection for £200. The same painting was valued at £4 million in 2003. Mahon's bequest was made on the condition that the gallery would never deaccession any of its paintings or charge for admission. Jock McFadyen was the first Artist in Residence in 1981. Since 1989, the gallery has run an Associate Artist scheme that gives
9860-570: The gallery, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake . Eastlake, who was President of the Royal Academy , played an essential role in the foundation of the Arundel Society and knew most of London's leading art experts. The new director's taste was for the Northern and Early Italian Renaissance masters or "primitives", who had been neglected by the gallery's acquisitions policy but were slowly gaining recognition from connoisseurs. He made annual tours to
9976-408: The gallery. This axis is exaggerated by the use of false perspective , as the columns flanking each opening gradually diminish in size until the visitor reaches the focal point (as of 2009), an altarpiece by Cima of The Incredulity of Saint Thomas . Venturi's postmodernist approach to architecture is in full evidence at the Sainsbury Wing, with its stylistic quotations from buildings as disparate as
10092-627: The gallery: in 2004, to buy Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks ; in 2008, for Titian's Diana and Actaeon ; and in 2012, Titian's Diana and Callisto . Both Titians were bought in tandem with the National Gallery of Scotland for £95 m. Both of these major works were sold from the collection of the Duke of Sutherland . The National Gallery is now largely priced out of the market for Old Master paintings and can only make such acquisitions with
10208-443: The last Friday evening of the month. The Bromley Times and Bromley News Shopper publish local news in the borough. London Fire Brigade has four fire stations within the London Borough of Bromley. The borough is the largest in the city: about 150 km . With just one pumping appliance, Orpington has one of the largest areas to cover in London, measuring 46.7 km . In 2006/2007, Orpington attended 1,308 incidents. There
10324-488: The locality for decades, led to the area immediately around the palace and its park becoming known as Crystal Palace . The most easterly district of Upper Norwood is now known as Crystal Palace and is the commercial hub of Upper Norwood, known locally as the "Triangle". The most westerly district is known as Crown Point. The central district was once known as Norwood New Town , but this name is now only seen on older maps. The French impressionist Camille Pissarro painted around
10440-472: The major joint retrospective Exhibition of Paintings by Sir William Nicholson and Jack B. Yeats held from 1 January to 15 March 1942, which was seen by 10,518 visitors. Exhibitions of work by war artists, including Paul Nash , Henry Moore and Stanley Spencer , were also held; the War Artists' Advisory Committee had been set up by Clark in order "to keep artists at work on any pretext". In 1941,
10556-544: The major public appeals backing them, including Leonardo da Vinci 's cartoon of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist (bought in 1962) and Titian 's Death of Actaeon (bought in 1972). The gallery's purchase grant from the government was frozen in 1985, but later that year it received an endowment of £50 million from Sir Paul Getty , enabling many major purchases to be made. In April 1985 Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover and his brothers,
10672-458: The matter cleared the gallery of any wrongdoing, criticism of its methods has been erupting sporadically ever since from some in the art establishment. The gallery's lack of space remained acute in this period. In 1845, a large bequest of British paintings was made by Robert Vernon ; there was insufficient room in the Wilkins building so they were displayed first in Vernon's town house at No. 50 Pall Mall and then at Marlborough House . The gallery
10788-592: The north. Also recycled are the sculptures on the façade, originally intended for Nash's Marble Arch but abandoned due to his financial problems. The eastern half of the building housed the Royal Academy until 1868, which further diminished the space afforded to the National Gallery. The building was the object of public ridicule before it had even been completed, as a version of the design had been leaked to The Literary Gazette in 1833. Two years before completion, its infamous "pepperpot" elevation appeared on
10904-504: The pollution of central London or the failings of Wilkins's building, when the prospect of a move to South Kensington was mooted in the 1850s. According to the Parliamentary Commission of 1857, "The existence of the pictures is not the end purpose of the collection, but the means only to give the people an ennobling enjoyment". 15th- and 16th-century Italian paintings were at the core of the National Gallery and for
11020-559: The population lives in the north and west of the borough, with an outlier at Biggin Hill in the far south. The borough shares borders with the London Boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich to the north, Bexley to the north-east, Southwark and Lambeth to the north-west, and Croydon to the west. It also borders the Sevenoaks District of Kent to the east and south, and the Tandridge District of Surrey to
11136-815: The public in 1779, that of the Medici in Florence around 1789 (as the Uffizi Gallery), and the Museum Français at the Louvre was formed out of the former French royal collection in 1793. Great Britain , however, did not follow other European countries, and the British Royal Collection still remains in the sovereign's possession. In 1777, the British government had the opportunity to buy an art collection of international stature, when
11252-505: The rate of population growth increased. The population peaked in the 1970s, when industry began to relocate from London. The most recent 2021 United Kingdom census the borough showed a total population of 329,991, up from 309,392 in 2011 . All major religions are represented, but of those stating a choice, 48.3% described themselves as Christian down from 60.7% in 2011. In 2001, of the population, 43.47% were in full-time employment and 11.06% in part-time employment – compared to
11368-605: The remaining Crystal Palace railway station is some distance below Upper Norwood, and approached by many steps. However, Crystal Palace Parade remains an important bus interchange and many residents instead use plentiful local bus routes to travel to West Norwood , Tulse Hill , Streatham , West Dulwich or Norbury railway stations . The disconnection from the capital's rail/tube network has led to it having lower house prices than other areas possessing scenic views of London. London Borough of Bromley The London Borough of Bromley ( / ˈ b r ɒ m l i / )
11484-447: The site for being "in the very gangway of London"; this was seen as necessary for the gallery to fulfil its social purpose. Subsidence in No. 100 caused the gallery to move briefly to No. 105 Pall Mall, which the novelist Anthony Trollope described as a "dingy, dull, narrow house, ill-adapted for the exhibition of the treasures it held". This in turn had to be demolished for the opening of
11600-404: The smaller scale of many of the paintings. The main inspirations for these rooms are Sir John Soane 's toplit galleries for the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the church interiors of Filippo Brunelleschi . (The stone dressing is in pietra serena , the grey stone local to Florence.) The northernmost galleries align with Barry's central axis, so that there is a single vista down the whole length of
11716-423: The south-west. Westerham Heights , the highest point in London and Kent at an altitude of 804 feet (245 m), is on the southern boundary. The Prime Meridian passes through Bromley. About 30% of the land in Bromley is farmland, the highest figure of a London borough. A local government district called Bromley was created in 1867, covering the parish of Bromley . The neighbouring parish of Beckenham
11832-449: The status of "workers" following legal action brought by 27 claimants. The case received considerable press and media coverage. In 2024, the National Gallery celebrated its 200th anniversary with a range of programmes, events, and collaborations. The first suggestion for a National Gallery on Trafalgar Square came from John Nash , who envisaged it on the site of the King's Mews , while
11948-558: The university colleges of Bangor and Aberystwyth . In 1940, during the Battle of France , a more secure home was sought, and there were discussions about moving the paintings to Canada. This idea was firmly rejected by Winston Churchill , who wrote in a telegram to Kenneth Clark, "bury them in caves or in cellars, but not a picture shall leave these islands". Instead a slate quarry at Manod , near Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales,
12064-496: The use of radical conservation techniques at the National Gallery was in the immediate post-war years, following a restoration campaign by the gallery's chief restorer Helmut Ruhemann while the paintings were in Manod Quarry. When the cleaned pictures were exhibited to the public in 1946 there followed a furore with parallels to that of a century earlier. The principal criticism was that the extensive removal of varnish , which
12180-435: The west came more steadily but maintained the coherence of the building by mirroring Barry's cross-axis plan to the east. The use of dark marble for doorcases was also continued, giving the extensions a degree of internal consistency with the older rooms. The classical style was still in use at the National Gallery in 1929, when a Beaux-Arts –style gallery was built, funded by the art dealer and trustee Lord Duveen . However, it
12296-453: Was a Russian-born émigré banker based in London; his collection numbered 38 paintings, including works by Raphael and Hogarth 's Marriage A-la-Mode series. On 1 July 1823, George Agar-Ellis , a Whig politician, proposed to the House of Commons that it purchase the collection. The appeal was given added impetus by Beaumont's offer, which came with two conditions: that the government buy
12412-538: Was also made a local government district in 1878. Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894 . Other urban districts were subsequently created for Penge and Chislehurst in 1900, and Orpington in 1934. Bromley was incorporated to become a municipal borough in 1903, as was Beckenham in 1935. Chislehurst Urban District merged with the neighbouring Sidcup Urban District in 1934. The modern borough
12528-738: Was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963 , covering the combined area of the former Municipal Borough of Bromley , Municipal Borough of Beckenham , Orpington Urban District , Penge Urban District and the Chislehurst area from the Chislehurst and Sidcup Urban District (the Sidcup area went to the London Borough of Bexley ). Penge Urban District was the only part of the new borough which had been within
12644-610: Was even less well equipped for its next major bequest, as J. M. W. Turner was to bequeath the entire contents of his studio, excepting unfinished works, to the nation upon his death in 1851. The first 20 of these were displayed off-site in Marlborough House in 1856. Ralph Nicholson Wornum , the gallery's Keeper and Secretary, worked with John Ruskin to bring the bequest together. The stipulation in Turner's will that two of his paintings be displayed alongside works by Claude
12760-469: Was for them to enter the National Gallery; this was duly arranged upon his death by his friend and successor as director, William Boxall , and his widow Lady Elizabeth Eastlake . One of the most persistent criticisms of the National Gallery, other than of the perceived inadequacies of the building, has been of its conservation policy. The gallery's detractors have accused it of having had an over-zealous approach to restoration. The first cleaning operation at
12876-453: Was involved in the selection of the site and submitted some drawings at the last moment. Wilkins had hoped to build a "Temple of the Arts, nurturing contemporary art through historical example", but the commission was blighted by parsimony and compromise, and the resulting building, which opened to the public on 9 April 1838, was deemed a failure on almost all counts. The site only allowed for
12992-624: Was not long before the 20th-century reaction against Victorian attitudes became manifest at the gallery. From 1928 to 1952, the landing floors of Taylor's entrance hall were relaid with a new series of mosaics by Boris Anrep , who was friendly with the Bloomsbury Group . These mosaics can be read as a satire on 19th-century conventions for the decoration of public buildings, as typified by the Albert Memorial 's Frieze of Parnassus . The central mosaic depicting The Awakening of
13108-475: Was not resolved until 1959. Part of the collection is now on permanent loan to the Hugh Lane Gallery and other works rotate between London and Dublin every few years. A fund for the purchase of modern paintings established by Samuel Courtauld in 1923 bought Seurat 's Bathers at Asnières and other modern works for the nation; in 1934, many of these were transferred to the National Gallery from
13224-564: Was requisitioned for the gallery's use. In the seclusion afforded by the paintings' new location, the Keeper (and future director) Martin Davies began to compile scholarly catalogues on the collection, with assistance of the gallery's library which was also stored in the quarry. The move to Manod confirmed the importance of storing paintings at a constant temperature and humidity, something the gallery's conservators had long suspected but had hitherto been unable to prove. This eventually resulted in
13340-481: Was responsible for the Beulah Spa Hotel (demolished c. 1935 ) and the layout of the grounds. Its official title was The Royal Beulah Spa and Gardens. It became a popular society venue attracting large crowds to its fêtes . One widely publicized event was a "Grand Scottish Fete" on 16 September 1834 "with a tightrope performance by Pablo Fanque ", the black circus performer who would later dominate
13456-494: Was used in the 19th century to protect the surface of paintings but which darkened and discoloured over time, may have resulted in the loss of "harmonising" glazes added to the paintings by the artists themselves. The opposition to Ruhemann's techniques was led by Ernst Gombrich , a professor at the Warburg Institute who in later correspondence with a restorer described being treated with "offensive superciliousness" by
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