The Guildhall Art Gallery in London displays British art and is located above the ruins of an ancient Roman amphitheater. The museum houses valuable and unusual works of art, including pieces salvaged from WWII. The gallery also features rotating exhibits and is easily accessible by public transport.
The Guildhall Art Gallery is a museum in London that houses many paintings, sculptures and other works of art. All of the works in this museum depict or have their roots in Britain, particularly London, in the present day or throughout history. It was chartered in 1885 as a means of preserving and showcasing the capital’s artistic talent. The original gallery building was badly damaged in WWII and only rebuilt in the late 1990s. The current Guildhall Art Museum is located directly adjacent to the original bombed out building.
Perhaps the Guildhall Art Gallery’s most notable feature is that it sits directly above the ruins of an ancient Roman amphitheater. The architects and construction crew who broke ground in the revitalized Guildhall uncovered the ruins in 1998. They were buried under several layers of earth. Of the structure, which is believed to have been built in AD 70, only two fragmented walls remain.
Museum visitors can visit the ruins, which are kept in the basement of the building. They are the centerpiece of an exhibition on Roman life in England and have been enriched with digital representations of what the entire structure would have looked like in its heyday. While unexpected, London’s Roman Amphitheater makes the Guildhall Art Gallery one of Britain’s most unique museums.
The gallery also houses many valuable and unusual works of art. The curators established a policy shortly after the museum’s reconstruction that all new acquisitions would focus solely on the city of London. This rule was not retroactive, resulting in the museum housing a wide variety of pieces. It is mainly centered around London, but not exclusively.
Some of the most celebrated pieces were original installations in the first Guildhall Art Gallery and were salvaged from the wreckage of the bombing or evacuated before the Blitz. One of these is the gigantic painting The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar, September 1782 by John Singleton Copley. The canvas spans two stories high and vividly documents the British defense of Gibraltar, a Commonwealth territory on Spain’s Iberian Peninsula. This work is one of the few pieces in the collection created by non-English artists: Copley was American.
As is true with many museums, the Guildhall Art Gallery holds far more pieces than have ever been on display at one time. The rotating exhibits featured various collections of paintings, sculptures, watercolors, and oil-on-canvas sketches. Curators commonly organize collections based on a single theme or time period, which are exhibited in museum exhibition halls. Many of these installations are designed specifically for children and school groups and aim at least in part to foster a connection between museums and young people.
The Guildhall Art Gallery is one of the many art museums in London. It is located in the area of London known as Guildhall Yard and is easily accessible by public transport. The gallery is a short walk from the Museum of London, which exhibits some art but focuses primarily on artefacts that depict the city’s past. Together, these two installments provide a solid picture of London life and culture through the ages.
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